The Ruly Blog

"thomas' closet organized . . . somewhat" Photo by megan soh. From the Flickr Creative Commons.

This month at Ruly we have been discussing clothing and closets, prepping for the change of seasons. Below is a quick summary of this month’s posts highlighting some of my favorite comments and recent news articles.

We started off the month discussing what to wear to a job interview and issued a Ruly Challenge to review your closet for interview-appropriate attire.

Lou commented:

During my ‘peak’ interview years, I had one designated ‘interview suit,’ that I used only for that purpose for almost 15 years! It always looked great since I hardly ever wore it. For follow-up interviews with the same people, it made it easy to choose a second outfit, because I always knew what I wore to the first one! Having ‘the suit’ ready reduced stress so I could focus on the interview.

Keeping your interview attire separate from your regular wardrobe so that it is always crisp, fresh and ready to go is a great suggestion.

We discussed strategies to maintain a minimalist closet and issued a second Ruly Challenge to adopt some form of clothing minimalism this month, whether a shopping diet, limiting your choice of clothing or finding new ways to wear your existing clothes. I shared with you the results of my own experiment wearing the same little black dress 7 days in a row.

We then dug in to closet organizing basics and gave a list of sorting categories for mens and womens clothes and some ideas about what clothes to get rid of. I also provided a list of closet organizing products.

I took my own medicine and sorted my own closet this weekend. Although my closet is already on the leaner side, I was amazed to discover numerous outfits I had “forgotten” about, including a wonderful jumpsuit that would have been great for my recent road trip vacation, and some great washable dress pants. I shifted the clothes to put my fall/cool season outfits in the easiest areas of the closet to access and retired a few outfits as well.

We did a week on real Washington style, looking at fashion trends in the Democratic party, the Republican party and in the military.

This month, President Obama took a vacation with his family. I was curious to see whether we would actually see the president in casual wear. He maintained his collared shirt but did relax into running shoes during this mini-golf expedition. (Note the grace under pressure of first daughter Sasha who makes a hole-in-one while an enormous number of journalists film the entire event.)

When Senator John McCain recently won a difficult challenge in the Arizona Republican Primary election, note that he was wearing his signature blue collared shirt.

Robin Givhan, fashion columnist for The Washington Post, recently wrote two articles giving some additional insight into the strange world that is Washington fashion. First, she wrote a surprising article about a new fashion styling referral service “Style for Hire” founded by Stacy London of TLC’s What Not to Wear and fashion executive Cindy McLaughlin to be headquartered here in Washington!

Why launch Style for Hire in the nation’s capital, a place not known for indulging in fashion fantasies? The decision was based on convenience as well as a recognition of this town’s complicated relationship with style. . . [T]he area is chockablock with people who have more money than time. It’s populated by sophisticates who have limited local access to such services. And while the area has a reputation for being unconcerned with fashion, its political swells are also known for being obsessed with appearances.

–Robin Givhan, “Web site’s founders offer style mavens to the masses“, The Washington Post, August 27, 2010

The article also has an interesting comment about how sensitive a stylist needs to be to his or her client’s vanity:

Stylists, one should know, are not always particularly well-attired. . . . [T]he red carpet doyenne Jessica Paster was sometimes so publicly disheveled she could have been mistaken for a bag lady — and not a Comme des Garcons, artfully ravaged one. And many of today’s top experts are more likely to wear practical jeans rather than Balmain or Pucci. The point is never to compete with the client.

–Robin Givhan, “Web site’s founders offer style mavens to the masses,” The Washington Post, August 27, 2010

It makes you wonder about how this rule applies in other businesses as well. We generally think that you want to “dress for the role you want” but if you look too good, could you end up threatening your boss and limiting your advancement? If you look too polished in your own business presentation, can you intimidate a client from hiring you? Maybe the fashion equation is a little more complex than we imagine.

Ms. Givhan also enlightens us about how Secretary of State Hilary Clinton is a fashion radical with her choice of hairstyle:

Conventional wisdom advises that after a certain age — 50ish — women should cut their hair. It’s impossible to trace this bit of advice to the first tyrant who uttered it. But over generations, it has become ingrained in beauty lore. Some women might continue to wear flowing hair deep into their AARP years, but they do so knowing they’re flouting accepted practice. . . . Clinton’s hair, now creeping toward below-the-shoulders territory, is practically radical for Washington’s seasoned female power elite. Good for her.

–Robin Givhan, “In her latest act of defiance, Hillary Rodham Clinton gets a new, longer hairdo,” The Washington Post, August 29, 2010.

I was unaware of the “short hair after 50” rule but would not be surprised if there are a million more unwritten rules like this governing Washington fashion. Perhaps Washington politicians need a uniform guide like the U.S. military!

We discussed the state of fashion design protection laws and the possible impact of the Innovative Design Protection and Piracy Prevention Act pending before Congress.

We reviewed fall 2010 women’s fashion trends with Ruly Ruth and I showed the results of my experiment investigating how slim you can look in the latest shapewear products. We also looked as recession-friendly refashioning/clothing recycling ideas, including the blanket outfit I sent my daughter to preschool in.

Sheffield of back-in-style.com commented:

You mentioned that fashion was pulling from the past. I totally agree. There is something from every decade on this list. 90s- minimal clean lines, (think calvin klein, jil sander), 80s over the top bold animal prints, 70s- chunky interesting knit sweaters and long skirts, 60s- capes and duster coats, 50s- full skirts, and shirt dresses. This makes it easy to shop at vintage stores, where you might be able to purchase a better quality piece that is still in your price range, like a cashmere cape for under $200, or a cocktail dress for under $100!

When I reflect on Fall 2010 women’s fashion trends, I have to admit it seems like a potpourri of various designs from the past. There is so much variety it is almost hard to say whether any of it is a recognizable “trend.” But, if you are wondering which looks from each decade are “timeless” it is a good education.

Other comments:

There were two great comments this month on older blog posts I wanted to share with you as well.

On my post about comeback tips from Donald Trump,

Seff commented:

Having gone through considerable up’s and down’s in life (the 2008 till now recession being arguably the most severe) I have to say I enjoyed the Trump saga read and feel the juices rushing back to their proper place. Life is tough. I had taken from me my first $4m in a fashion I’d care to simply learn from. How much you want out of it depends on how much you are willing to put in to it. Personally I applaud the guy. He has the nose’ the flamboyance and the focus to make it succeed. I’m hot on your heels Mr. Trump!

Recently, the new season of The Apprentice was announced and the trailer is great. This season the apprentices will all be laid off workers trying to get back on their feet after the recession. It looks very inspirational and I look forward to watching! Yet another winner idea for Donald Trump!

Reflecting the challenging economy, Harmony commented honestly on my post about Working for the Perfectionist Boss and Managing the Perfectionist Employee:

“I’m a perfectionist employee. Most of the above-mentioned characteristics describe me. However, I don’t see how my boss will be able to tone down his disagreement with some of my “imperfect work.” I feel as though he is the reason why I’m stressed and constantly striving to be perfect. . . .”

My heart certainly goes out to Harmony in this situation. Sometimes when you feel you have tried everything and you don’t see a situation changing, it is time to polish your resume, scan the job listings and find another employer. Even the best advice in the world can’t fix every situation. Sometimes we just have to chalk things up to a “bad fit” and move on. Don’t be afraid to make a change!

Link Love:

Many thanks to the sites below who linked to my posts this month:

• USS Ashland.org who linked to my post on current military uniform guidelines.
• eHow referenced my article on Contemporary Style in their article on Contemporary Living Room and Den Styles.

Thanks for exploring the interesting world of fashion, clothing and closet organization with me this month! If you can believe it, another month is done and we start a new month and a new theme on Wednesday. Type to you then!

It is the end of another month and time to recap this month’s posts on organizing your car and driving and highlight some of my favorite comments.

You generously joined me for a road trip across the U.S.–from Virginia to Tennessee, Tennessee to New Mexico, New Mexico to Utah and Utah back to Virginia.

Whenever we mentioned our trip to people as we were traveling across the United States, the number one comment we got was, “How are your kids handling that trip?” usually followed by a horror story about how the person spent hours in a car with a screaming child. Both my husband and I think our kids did great on our trip! There were occasional meltdowns but they were short-lived. We made sure to get out of the car every 3 hours and see something and we generally averaged no more than about 450 to 500 miles a day. Toward the end of our trip we had to pick up the miles and do closer to 600 a day and that may have contributed to the fatigue we felt.

There is no magic trick for how to entertain children on a long road trip. Having a positive attitude helps. Adults don’t tend to give children enough credit for how flexible and adaptable they are. Sometimes children are far better travelers than adults! Children are much better at living in the moment and appreciating little things like swingsets or dandelions in what an adult might see as an uninteresting spot.

On our trip, I used many of the car entertainment suggestions I highlighted in this post.  The bingo cards from Mom’s Minivan were a big hit. We didn’t use them for bingo but rather to help our 4-year old inventory the highway. We counted up how many motorcycles we saw, pickup trucks, buses, etc. We even added in our own items like boats, trains, birds and flatbed trucks. Another great entertainer for our kids was crayons and coloring books. A map of the United States (that we got free in the junk mail from the Sierra Club) gave our 4-year old some concept of geography and movement. We put a sticker on each city that we visited as we went. My 4-year old also liked to borrow the camera and take pictures of things inside and outside the car. Some of her creative shots actually came out really well!

We didn’t use videos. We brought along the laptop and some videos in case we needed them but the one time we brought out the laptop to watch videos our 4-year old’s behavior escalated from good to horrible in seconds. We put all the videos away and never brought them out again. It takes a little more energy to actively entertain children with games and songs but it is also part of the bonding experience.

My husband did ALL the driving on our trip and I was the backseat entertainer. When Ruth and I were chatting about this in Vegas she said that she and her husband do the same and that she thought the backseat role was a lot harder than driving. Sometimes it was tiring but I got used to it and it seems so did our children.

We discussed Tom Vanderbilt’s book, “Traffic.” During our road trip, we experienced some of the concepts he mentions like the “treadmill effect.”

Lou commented:

In our household we designate the front passenger seat as the one for the
“NAG – rivator” — the one who is well-meaning in giving driving instructions, but not really a navigator. I like to think it works like the “girlfriend effect” — and makes better drivers of us all!

I gave a basic tutorial on Google Maps. On our road trip we ended up using a variety of navigation tools. When my husband and I did a road trip 13 years ago for our honeymoon, all we had with us was a paper road atlas of the United States. 13 years later, we had his Garmin navigator, a printout from Google Maps and an iPhone to guide us. It’s a little easier to have step-by-step directions but we also learned that technology can fail you in a surprising number of ways! Sometimes the destination was not in the Garmin and in very rural areas (like the Kansas farm roads) the Garmin was completely wrong. We reverted to the pre-printed Google Maps instructions a few times. In a pinch, we would also use the iPhone to look something up on Google Maps as we were driving. This was the least reliable method, however, since cell phone signals were often nonexistent on many sections of the highway.

Another great navigation tool is tripadvisor.com.  This website has traveler-provided reviews of hotels, restaurants and places of interest.  We used it to great effect in many of the small towns we visited.  Often we would drive into a relatively uninteresting town but thanks to a suggestion from tripadvisor, we were guided to great hole-in-the-wall sorts of places that we never would have discovered on our own.  I recommend you use it to look up your own hometown.  You might find something surprising, or, do us all a favor and add in your own recommendations!

I shared with you my car accident worksheet and tips for handling car accidents. Fortunately, we never needed this on our trip!

Me on our road trip in my nearly constant photography pose.

I shared some tips for organizing the car. On a long road trip in a car packed with stuff, you have to constantly give some thought to cleaning up the car. We tried to empty out all trash each time we filled up for gas and clean out each night. Some days we were more successful than others! One other good tip was that we also cleaned the windows at each gas stop. This is critical when you are trying to do photography on the road since sometimes it is not possible to roll down the windows.

I let you in on some of my car cleaning secrets to get a new car look. I will be using them this weekend to overhaul our minivan.

We also discussed MADD’s efforts to prevent drunk driving and encouraged U.S. readers to contact their Congressional representatives to support ignition interlocks for convicted drunk drivers. You may see this type of legislation coming to a state near you. It recently passed in New York and takes effect August 15.

Ruly Ruth discussed what your car says about you. There were some great comments on this post.

diadia wrote:

Too cool Grand Mama tools about in an 02 Dodge Stratus (now extinct) in a
deep true red 4-dr sedan. Eat your heart out. It’s paid for.

A paid for car boosts its cool factor by 10 in my book! Thanks for the reminder!

Mac wrote:

. . . Finally succumbed to the mini-van, Toyota Siena. Thank goodness for the commercials that attempt to instill coolness with their “swagger wagon” advertising. Every now and then, I just HAVE to drive a vehicle that doesn’t have carseat in it…and when that happens, I take Evan’s Prius out for a spin! For some reason or another, it makes me feel younger!

I love the honesty in this comment. Some people incorporate their cars into their persona–like a large fashion accessory. While it is fun to drive in a fun car, I don’t wrap myself up in my car all that much and see it primarily as just a way to get around.

Also, since we don’t watch a lot of TV, I had to look up the “swagger wagon” reference. While they are funny commercials, they perpetuate stereotypes that minivan families are completely dweeby, self-absorbed people and watching them made me feel worse about being a minivan driver! I resign myself to driving the most “uncool” car in the world.

Finally, there were a few important lessons I learned about the benefits of taking a long vacation once in a while. It requires a lot more work to go on a long vacation than a short weekend trip (both in terms of pre-trip preparation and post-trip cleanup) but getting away from your everyday surroundings for a long period and seeing something completely new on a day-to-day basis really frees up your mind. It challenges the patterns you have developed and invites you to look at the world in a new way. Upon returning from my vacation, I view my own home differently and have been re-energized to work on more organizational projects.

We found out our vacation limit on this trip. It is about 14 days (for travel where we are in a new city every day). After 14 days, we tend to want to come back to home base to recharge for a bit. If we had longer stops on our route where we got to stay in a city for more than one or two days we might have been able to extend further. I wonder how many people have ever discovered what their vacation limit is. Too often, we are cramming vacation into the meager holiday weekends and going to visit the same people and places over and over.

I was surprised to read several new stories about the realities of “post-vacation letdown.”  This one in Newsweek says that research suggests we are happiest anticipating a vacation but not necessarily on the vacation itself.  It is written by someone who clearly does not enjoy family vacations and gives a bit of a grouchy perspective.  Sue Shellenbarger of The Wall Street Journal’s Juggle column reports that some families are opting not to travel as a pack but rather having dad take off with friends for a “mancation” and mom with her girlfriends for a girls weekend.

Also, getting out and traveling gives you better insight on the news you read. If you do nothing but sit in your own home and read the headlines, you can become easily depressed and worried that the world is a dangerous place and that we are all about to become financially destitute. Out on the road, experiencing the U.S. for ourselves, we gained a new confidence and faith in this country. It’s sheer size, the diversity of the people who live here, its farms, industry and the potential for opportunity are incredible! While it is somewhat amazing that we all manage to cohere as a nation given the differences between states, the American flag flies proudly in every state. It was very inspiring to see and we are fortunate indeed to live in such a nation.

Flag in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Flag in Fort Smith, Arkansas.

Flag in Huntington, West Virginia.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend. Back on Monday when we start a new month and a new theme!

"Dog Show." (completely deaf rescued dalmatian, who's been trained for agility using just hand signals). Photo by Sam Cockman. From the Flickr Creative Commons.

This month at Ruly we have been exploring motivation. Below is a summary of this month’s blog posts highlighting some of my favorite comments and news updates.

We started off the month with a Ruly Challenge to complete a motivation worksheet helping you work through your available time, resources and to do list.

Lou commented:

“Okay, I did the list first and was able to cross off a thing or two just by writing it down!”

I found the same thing. Sometimes by just taking a few minutes to pause and think about what you need to do makes you realize that you are agonizing over something that you don’t need to. I also found that you have less guilt about not accomplishing something if you realize that you just don’t have the time or money to be doing that anyway.

Business Turnarounds and Comebacks

We looked to the business world for information on staging a business comeback. First, we looked at Steve Miller’s book, The Turnaround Kid and found 4 lessons for his comeback process: organize, simplify, focus on your biggest problem and create a plan with help from others.

Next, we took lessons on motivation from Harry Paul and Ross Peck’s Instant Turnaround whose simple but powerful philosophy is to surround yourself in a positive work environment with constant recognition and praise

Next, we looked to Donald Trump, the comeback master and created a top 10 list of Trump tips from his 1997 classic The Art of the Comeback. Wall Street Journal reporter John Newport recently challenged Donald Trump to a round of golf with prizes depending on who won the match (a signed “hedcut” image from the Wall Street Journal for Mr. Trump or a Trump-recorded cell phone message for Mr. Newport’s daughter). Mr. Trump won the match but generously offered to record a message for Mr. Newport’s 15-year-old daughter’s cell phone. His message shows the sort of confidence, generosity and fun that Mr. Trump exemplifies:

“This is Donald Trump, you’re calling Anna Belle. She’s a great beauty, she’s a fantastic young woman, she’s brilliant. If you want to speak to her, just leave your number and maybe you’ll be lucky enough for her to call you back. Good luck!”

–Donald Trump, quoted in John Paul Newport’s “Trading Shots with Donald Trump,” The Wall Street Journal, June 26, 2010

When it comes to motivating employees, a reader sent me a link to this interesting video illustrating a speech by Dan Pink at the RSA. The artistry is beautiful to watch but even more interesting is the point that when it comes to work requiring advanced cognitive processing, more money produces worse performance rather than better! What does motivate? You will have to watch to see.

Disaster Recovery

From the business world, we looked to disaster recovery lessons from the BP gulf coast oil spill and to Haiti’s earthquake recovery process.

Unfortunately, things still seem to be getting worse for BP. The oil spill continues to flow and, according to Tony Hayward’s Congressional testimony on June 17, likely won’t be stopped until August! I didn’t watch all of the testimony but the portion I did watch showed that our Congressional representatives put an incredible amount of effort into researching the specifics of oil drilling and operations. I was a bit surprised to hear all the detailed questions about oil well construction.

We now have a few more clues to the mystery of who owns MC252. According to The Washington Post, in addition to BP’s 65% interest, Anadarko Petroleum Corp., an American company, owns 25% and the remaining 10% is owned by “a subsidiary of Mitsui & Co. Ltd. of Japan.” From the Congressional testimony, we also understand that Haliburton was somehow involved in the drilling operations as well.

Given the resources of the many companies involved in this accident, I am fully confident that the victims of the oil spill will be fully compensated in time for these tremendous losses and that the gulf coast will be eventually cleaned up to a near pristine condition but I also sympathize that in the short-term many people are facing a difficult transition and are financially and emotionally devastated.

Just viewing BP’s website, it seems that their people are hard at work to both kill the well flow and clean up the environment but starting to tire a bit from the stress of this operation. I hope that BP is taking steps to motivate these people and recognize their hard work. We are all depending on them!

Genetic Factors of Motivation

We also discussed two aspects of motivation that are more genetic based and perhaps out of our control: personality traits such as auditory-sequential versus visual-spatial learners and mental illnesses such as depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Spreading Motivation

We looked at Alexandra Penney’s book, The Bag Lady Papers, discussing her own recovery process from the Bernie Madoff scandal and found tips to support family and friends struggling financially.

Danny Stewart-Smith provided a great Ruly Mix to motivate us and discussed his own experiences with motivation.

Ruly Ruth discussed the politics of group motivation and encouraged us all to join a group.

I hope that this month has given you a boost in motivation as well as insight into what motivates you and others.

Please check back on Friday for the start of a new month and a new theme!

Victory Gardens--for family and country. Sunday morning in many U.S. communities finds all the neighbors getting together for a good workout at the community Victory Garden. Through cooperation of local organizations, thousands of vacant lots in thousands of cities are being transformed into fruitful gardens, where everyone from grandpa to the youngster down the block puts in hours of patriotic labor (1943). Photo by Ann Rosener. From the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

It’s the end of another month and time to summarize this month’s posts and highlight some of my favorite comments. This month at Ruly we have been discussing strategies to bring more order to your yard and garden. We started off with 5 reasons to love your landscaping.

We covered gardening basics, beginning with knowing how much “free” water (i.e. rain) you receive and selecting native plants that are easier to maintain.

Watering My Garden commented:

i live in rome, italy where the local mains supply is extremely hard alkaline water…collecting and reusing rainwater is essential if i’m to enjoy acid loving plants like gardenias on my terrace!

Isn’t it delightful to know that someone is out there watering gardenias on the terrace in Rome? It makes me smile to think about it.

We also discussed weed prevention strategies including mulching and discussed when there can be too much mulch.

Diadia commented:

The best time to de-weed the garden and yard is right after the rain.
With garden gloves and a dandelion digger and a weed bag, it is fast work.

My four year old now points out all the mulch to me when we are in parking lots at various stores. While driving down one of the main roads in town, I saw this unique mulching technique in the median strip that I thought was rather pretty. The edges of the mulch bed are lined with rocks. It had never occurred to me to use two different types of mulching materials. The designer of this bed cleverly used mulch as a design element.

Median strip using rock edging and organic mulch.

Foraging into landscape design, we discussed evergreen plantings and noted that at least 25% of your plantings should be evergreens but that too many evergreens make a space gloomy and depressing.

We had a fun post on topiary plantings, showing the artistry than can be created by shaping plants.

We gave a quick pruning lesson to spruce up your bushes, shrubs and trees.

We discussed 5 signs of the perfectionist gardener.

Mary commented:

I personally know several garden perfectionists, and I agree, it becomes more stressful than enjoyable. I even have a family member who stays glued to the weather reports so he can fertilize the lawn EVERY time before it rains!!!! And then he grumbles about constantly having to mow it and pay an outrageous water bill so it doesn’t burn up. No fun.

We shared strategies for controlling garden predators like deer, rabbits and birds.

Lou commented:

Best line, ” …if you really want to screen these animals out, you essentially need to fence yourself in!” How true. We once tried crushed garlic to get rid of rabbits and squirrels as we were told they were repelled by the smell. Problem was, so were we!

Danny Stewart-Smith provided a soothing and reflective Ruly Mix to help you relax in your favorite outdoor space.

Ruly Ruth discussed the challenges of adjusting to life in the desert both from a landscaping and quality of life point of view. We also discussed 10 reasons people insist on using grass in the desert. After thinking on this list for a bit I would add two more to the list.

11)  Homeowners Associations. Sometimes planting grass is not a choice and is required by the covenants of those who live in planned communities. In those cases, getting rid of grass requires a concerted effort by the entire community. The political challenges of effecting such a change can be tough.

12) The Man Factor. Historically, men have been in charge of maintaining the yard and garden. There is nothing feminine about grass. It does not flower. It is not a pretty plant that is cut and used in arrangements. It largely requires gasoline-powered tools to cut it. If you had to pick the most manly plant, it would be hard to beat grass. Would men be willing to use the same effort to plant groundcovers or flowering shrubs? Hard to say.

We reviewed James Wong’s clever book, “Grow Your Own Drugs,” providing medicinal uses for common garden plants.

Guest blogger Kathy Jentz of Washington Gardener magazine provided 9 landscaping design suggestions to use instead of turfgrass in your yard.

Finally, I leave you with a Ruly Challenge for the month.  This month’s challenge is an ongoing effort that you don’t need to do right away but can be chipped away at continually:

The Challenge: Locate a list of native plants for your area. Look up pictures of each plant and learn to identify them in the wild spaces near your home. Determine which, if any, of these plants you might like to grow in your own garden.

I am still working through a list of Virginia native plants but it has been a lot of fun to learn to identify some of these plants. I discovered that I really like the Loblolly pine! In addition to having a wonderful name it is also a very interesting pine tree that looks a bit like a cross between a weeping willow and a pine tree. It’s needles are long and a bit shaggy looking. The sensitive plant is also a fun one that closes up its leaves when touched.

I hope that you have enjoyed this month at Ruly and perhaps learned a few tips to organize your yard and garden and keep it looking great. Please check back on Wednesday when we start a new month and a new topic!

I will close noting that today is Memorial Day in the United States, a day to remember those who have lost their lives in military conflicts. Thinking today of all those who were not able to see victory but who made the freedoms we enjoy today possible.

Garden party for wounded soldiers (May 21, 1925) President Coolidge speaking with a wounded soldier in a wheelchair pushed by a nurse in white, as Mrs. Coolidge looks on. From the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

Célestine, l'héroïne de Le Journal d'une femme de chambre, Illustration by Octave Mirbeau (1848-1917). From the Wikimedia Commons.

It is the end of the month and time to give a quick summary of April at Ruly along with sharing some news updates and reviewing some of my favorite comments.

This month’s theme was design. We peeked in on Washington’s cherry blossoms and discussed what makes a great outdoor living space.

There was a great article in the New York Times recently discussing the Milan Furniture Fair and raising some interesting questions about modern design theory:

“There is one question that everyone should sensibly ask before designing or making something to show at the Milan Furniture Fair. Does the world need another chair?” . . .

“[D]esign’s intellectual focus has swung away from producing tangible things, like furniture, toward the abstract process of applying design thinking to ethical issues, such as social, environmental or humanitarian problems, and developing sexy new technologies, like data visualization.” . . .

“. . . [E]xplained Ilse Crawford, the British designer who co-curated the Eindhoven show as a department head there. “Design needs to be seen more as a critical process, and less about making things look good.”

–Alice Rawsthorn, “Furniture Designers Are Shifting Focus,” The New York Times, April 11, 2010.

We reviewed three major design styles: Colonial, Victorian and Contemporary, and gave suggestions for how to best use these styles in your own home.

We reviewed the design for the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial in Washington, D.C. and profiled the fundraising efforts of the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation, Inc.

The Foundation continues to be successful in their fundraising efforts. They have raised at least one million dollars in April and have received donations from some of America’s largest corporations, most recently a $300,000 donation from PEPCO. Their list of donors is starting to read like a who’s who of the corporate world. It is wonderful to see so many companies supporting this important monument to freedom and equality. The Foundation still has about $13 million to go so please download the free Yahoo! search toolbar that generates 5 cents per search.

I showed you my budget patio furniture makeover and gave tips on spray painting lawn furniture and an economical way to sew your own patio furniture cushions.

It is a good thing that I saved some money on my patio furniture because shortly thereafter our HVAC system failed and had to be replaced! Despite some wallet shock, in the long run, we will be saving money and energy and we fixed some previously unknown problems with our furnace installation.

I also told you about my countertop clearing project. Giving suggestions here and here for organizing tools to help get your stuff out of the way. I also showed you my own countertop makeover in progress and more creative suggestions to achieve a naked countertop.

For more horizontal surface decluttering ideas, check out the video interview with Peter Walsh at unclutterer.com.  You may recall that Peter Walsh is the author of “It’s All Too Much,” the first Ruly Bookshelf review.

Ruly Ruth discussed the delicate politics of decorating with your spouse, particularly male-female differences in home decor.

We saw how professional designers Lisa Quinn, Lauri Ward and the Designed to Sell team at HGTV work with limited budgets of $2,000, $500 and even nothing at all!

Diadia. emphasizing simplicity, commented that one of her budget decorating tips was to paint all the walls gloss white and use her art collection to add color. In another comment she also indicated that she was eliminating all of her grass in order to plant a low-maintenance groundcover.

We discussed spring cleaning rituals from the Victorian era and the 1950’s and reviewed a list of the most ambitious spring cleaning blog checklists. We also shared quick tips for spring cleaning your office space.

After we replaced our HVAC system, one of my spring cleaning tasks this month was to get our air vents vaccuumed. Each vent cover was removed and a long air hose with a rotating brush attachment was inserted far into the duct work to suck out any collected dust. Afterward, the cleaning company “fogged” all of the ductwork with a spray that kills any remaining mold or other health-impairing impurities.

As I went around the entire house clearing spaces around each of the numerous air vents, it became obvious that our home could use a deep spring cleaning! Dust collects in unusual places, particularly those you don’t visit very often. There is no way I can “purify” everything right away but I will gradually take it room by room and may perhaps have my “spring” cleaning done by the fall. I had to sympathize however, with my sister-in-law’s recent Facebook post:

My room is a disaster. The idea of cleaning it makes me want to cry.

We discussed principles of green design inspired by Earth Day Richmond.

There were many great comments and suggestions on this post.  Ruly Ruth pointed out the efforts of Terracycle to collect garbage like drink pouches and candy wrappers and turn them into products for sale, like backpacks and pencil cases. Lou suggested using vinegar and baking soda for cleaning before using harsher chemical products and Mary reminded us that if you toss in a few “extras” with your recycling you could jeopardize an entire recycling collection. Shelby commented to inform Ruly readers about an online book club discussing the book Greening Your Small Business by Jennifer Kaplan, a parter at Greenhance, an environmental consulting firm.

While pumping gas in my car this morning, I realized another easy green initiative. When you have the option whether to receive a printed receipt, unless you are really going to use it, decline.

I also have to cite my sister-in-law’s Facebook page for her tongue-in-cheek link to Moonpads, a washable menstrual pad. I am such an earth mother that I do think about the waste generated in this regard but have yet to do anything about it. Having gone the cloth diaper route for my children and finding that to be really no big deal I guess I would say I would be willing to at least try it but it does seem a bit daunting (or “gross” as my SIL’s friend commented).

We finished out the month with a wonderful Ruly Mix from Danny Stewart-Smith who also shared some great content and pictures on Japanese interior design. I love Dan’s mix and find it instantly relaxing and soothing.

Finally, I received a wonderful behind-the-scenes comment that made my month regarding last month’s post about budgeting:

“I wanted to tell you that I have been working with a homeless woman who has just gotten disability. For the first time in her life she has some money to manage. I printed off your budgeting sheet and shared it with her and we developed a budget from that.”

I am having a ball writing for you each month and I thank all of you for reading and commenting. On Monday I will be back to introduce a new theme for May. In the meantime, please enjoy these wonderful YouTube videos showcasing how to add some style to your spring cleaning routine by dancing.

It’s the last day of March and time to recap this month’s discussion of money.  I am also including some of my favorite comments from the month and links to other interesting articles.

"Where the newsboy's money goes." Photo by Lewis W. Hine, May, 1910. From the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

• We started the month discussing the reasons why you need to learn to manage your own money and suggested readers watch Niall Fergusson’s, “The Ascent of Money.“
• We discussed budgeting, a foundation concept in money management, introduced our fictional family, the Medians, and issued The Ruly Challenge to create or update your household budget.
• We discussed electronic checkbook management options and gave instructions for GnuCash, an open source financial management software.
• We discussed debt management and how to calculate payoff schedules to get rid of your debt.

Ruly Ruth commented:

“[T]here’s a HUGE emotional quotient to analyzing these numbers. The big negative balances and the lengthy payoff times can be emotionally stressful and saddening for many.”

• We walked through a cash-out mortgage refinancing example and explained why sometimes it is more cost effective to pay down your debts as they are rather than using complicated strategies like refinancing.
• We reviewed Howard Schilit’s “Financial Shenanigans” and discussed the accounting tricks you need to be watching out for as an investor.

If you follow Howard Schilit on Twitter, you saw his link to a recent New York Times article indicating that there were some financial shenanigans in the cost estimates for health care reform.

• We talked taxes and gave some organizational hints to help you get your tax papers in order.  My taxes are done and currently in the 7-day waiting period I discussed.  Once I got into the nitty gritty of my business taxes, I ended up needing to consult with a professional CPA (with the incredibly Southern and accounting-appropriate first name of “Banks”).  It would be a wonderful gift to small businesses to enact some tax simplification standards.  Currently we treat almost all businesses for tax purposes as though they are Fortune 100 companies.
• We discussed insurance, including what to look for in an insurance quote and how to evaluate the financial strength of an insurer.
• Ruly Ruth discussed the delicate politics of money and marriage.

In a sad trend, The Washington Post ran an article recently profiling the number of spouses who cannot afford to divorce and are currently doing the best they can to tolerate each other living in the same house while they wait for a better economic climate.

• We discussed saving for retirement, particularly through an employer-sponsored 401(k) plan, and the importance of rebalancing and evaluating the administrative costs charged by mutual funds.

If you need an incentive to ramp up your retirement saving, you may be interested to read the recent New York Times article indicating that Social Security goes broke this year and is currently paying out in benefits more than it takes in from payroll taxes–a troubling milestone that wasn’t supposed to be reached until 2016.

• We discussed options for those in severe financial distress, particularly bankruptcy.

Lou commented:

I hope the recession is an old fashioned lesson in learning to delay gratification, saving up front before purchasing, checking the fine print on interest rates, so no one ends up in such situations. But mostly, I just hope the recession is ending.

• We jammed to Danny Stewart-Smith’s “See So Clearly,” a song featuring the incredible vocal talents of Evin Gibson and reminding us all that there is more to life than money and possessions.

Mary Mary commented:

Having just made the transition from joblessness and receiving public assistance to being employed with a decent wage, I can definitely relate to the message in this song. My experience made me much more aware of the needless excess we often surround ourselves with, thinking it will bring us peace and happiness. I now understand the true value of life, family, hope and individual strength, none of which you can label with a price tag.

• We discussed the reasons for setting aside some cash in your emergency kit, using examples from the recent Haiti earthquake.
• As a bonus, I shared a budget-friendly recipe for an Americanized version of South African milk tart.

It has been a tough month going through this money discussion.  The math was a bit challenging and it was emotionally difficult at times to think about the reality of the recession at an individual level. I hope that you have been enriched by the discussion and that you feel at least a little more in control of your own finances.  While money can’t buy happiness, having a sound financial basis is one of the keys to being less stressed and more confident.

On Friday, we start a new month and a new theme!  We will be lightening things up a bit for April.  Please check back then!

It’s the end of the month and time to recap our discussion of perfectionism.

Arhat (Chinese: luohan), dated 1180 from the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. An arhat is a Buddhist deity who who has reached a stage of perfection through study and meditation. Photo by Didactohedron from the Wikimedia Commons.

• We started the month defining perfectionism and dicussing Pavel Somov’s 3 types of perfectionistic hunger.
• The Ruly Challenge this month was to keep a perfectionism diary to make you more aware of the areas in your life you expect perfection.
• The big blizzard of 2010 came to east coast and we discussed snowstorm survival skills, including my 4-year old’s blizzard cupcake recipe.
• We profiled perfectionist extraordinaire Martha Stewart and reviewed her Valentine chocolates.
• We also gave instructions for perfectly fun crayon valentine hearts for kids.
• We contrasted two authors approaches to perfection and happiness, Alice D. Domar’s, Be Happy Without Being Perfect and Gretchen Rubin’s The Happiness Project.
• Joe Hanley gave us the perfect Ruly Mix to remember the 2010 Winter Olympics.
• We discussed lessons learned from professional sports and public safety professions on perfectionism and learned that perfectionists might not make the best law enforcement officers.
• We discussed the roots of perfectionism, the parent-child relationship, and gave suggestions for perfectionist parents and perfectionist kids.
• We discussed perfectionism in the workplace, including how to cope with the perfectionist boss and manage the perfectionist employee.
• Finally, Ruly Ruth gave her perspective on perfectionism in friendships and discussed her love of perfectionistas.

I hope this month’s discussion has been as enlightening for you as it has been for me. Now that I am aware of the attitudes that define perfectionism, I am better able to evaluate numerous situations in my personal and professional life.

One of the most important quotes this month for me came from Hara Estroff Marano’s article, “Pitfalls of Perfectionism” that we discussed in the context of perfectionist parenting.

“[P]erfectionism is a crime against humanity. Adaptability is the characteristic that enables the species to survive—and if there’s one thing perfectionism does, it rigidifies behavior. It constricts people just when the fast-moving world requires more flexibility and comfort with ambiguity than ever. It turns people into success slaves.”

–Hara Estroff Marano, “Pitfalls of Perfectionism”

I still have a lot to think about perfectionism. My current view is that we need “tempered perfectionism” in our lives. While in yoga class last Saturday standing in triangle pose, I had a moment where I thought, “Why am I doing this to myself?” and realized that I must be doing these difficult exercises in the belief that they are somehow the perfect means to strength and flexibility. In the right doses, perfectionism is a powerful motivator. Move a notch beyond the ideal dose of perfectionism, however, and we end up with rigidity, inflexibility, fear of failure and our creative powers suffer.

Going in to the Ruly Challenge this month, I knew that I have a lot of perfectionist tendencies but I was confident that I was confining my perfectionism just to expectations for myself. Wrong! As I reviewed my diary at the end of the month, I was shocked to see how often I was disappointed when I expected other people to act perfectly as well.

A recent conversation with my husband brought home two key examples of perfectionism for us. My husband was playing a game of tag with my youngest daughter around the kitchen island. It was adorable. “Let me grab the video camera!” I said. “No way!” he responded “This kitchen is too much of a mess!” This brought on a semi-heated discussion about perfectionism. I chastised my husband for believing that anyone watching the video would be thinking about what our kitchen looks like rather than enjoying a tender moment between father and daughter. He ultimately agreed that he was being ridiculous. He showed me to be ridiculous too, however, when he suggested we spend a day cleaning the kitchen together and I became upset that he did not offer the “perfect” suggestion of not spending an entire precious weekend day cleaning but rather spending a few hours cleaning and then doing something enjoyable as a family. We both had to laugh and learned a lot.

You see perfectionism at work in today’s business headlines as well. This weekend I was shopping at IKEA, one of my favorite stores. While I was looking up products on their website, I was surprised to find how many recalls their products have had. The current product recall list identifies hazards including “strangulation,” “laceration injury,” “injury to the head,” “choking hazard” and “flammability.” IKEA doesn’t hide these defects and puts a prominent link on the main U.S. page of their website. Strangely, these defects don’t seem to have harmed IKEA in any way. People still trust and like IKEA products very much. The fact that IKEA is so upfront about telling people about defects shows their commitment to safety. Also, IKEA’s products are generally so affordable that it is not a big deal to just throw something out and get a new one in the event of a defect.

Contrast IKEA with the current focus on Toyota’s gas pedal defect. It is my understanding that Toyota is not entirely sure why this defect is occurring and therefore doesn’t really know how to fix it. I find it interesting that people are absolutely unforgiving about this. While it could be that Toyota hid a known defect, it is also possible that something unknown happened or that it will never be fully understood why some cars have the defect and others don’t.

The Toyota recall shows an important aspect of human nature that when large amounts of money are involved more perfectionism is expected. For many people, Toyota’s mistake has become their mistake as well and they may be faced with losing money by purchasing another car or losing money on the sale of their defective car. Threatening people’s financial security puts people into hyper-control mode and perfectionism abounds. It is an important lesson to all of us that we can never guarantee perfection in any situation, even when we spend a lot of money, and that we should always have “Plan B” ready.

Finally, I wanted to give you the update on my amaryllis plants. The perfectionist plant featured in earlier blog posts, collapsed from exhaustion after putting out 4 perfect blooms. It is currently being supported by two wooden stakes and looks spent and sad. The other “Type B” plant has still not flowered yet but it has many lush green healthy leaves and is still going strong. Ruly Ruth might say the Type B plant is boring and the life of the perfectionist plant was dramatic and exciting. She might be right. I think we are all searching for that happy medium between perfectionism and mediocrity.

On Monday, we start a new month and a new theme. Please check back then and in the meantime, please feel free to share in the comments your thoughts on perfectionism.

Have a great weekend!

Is it just me or is it unbelievable that it is already the end of January!   This month at Ruly we focused on goals and goal-setting strategies.  We learned from a variety of voices about how to set and achieve goals, summarized below:

• Kevin Roberts: “Don’t do stuff you know you don’t like.”
• Robert F. Mager: Goals should be people-based and stated in the positive.
• Regina Bogomolova: an inspiring example of a small business owner working hard to achieve her goals
• Martin Luther King Jr.: reminds us that no worthwhile goal is ever “impossible”
• Ruly Ruth: shared 2010 anti-goals for social interactions
• Jamie Smith: jazzed us up to achieve our goals
• Corporations: how strategies use by professional earnings forecasters can help us set goals in uncertain times
• Brain research: how relying on willpower alone is a recipe for failure in achieving your goals and knowing our weaknesses and structuring our thinking for success is critical.

Ruly also provided some helpful tips and advice:

• Calendar 2010 Review: thinking broadly about the timing of holidays, paydays and other milestones
• Difficult Goals Worksheet and recycled thank you note project
• Refrigerator organization secrets from my own fridge makeover

We also discussed the Haiti earthquake and reviewed emergency preparedness and disaster survival strategies.  The situation in Haiti continues to bring both positive and negative updates.  Heartbreaking stories of amputations, food and water shortages and orphaned children abound.  But there are positive stories of survival as well.  I could not believe the CNN video below of a young boy pulled from the rubble after 8 days.

As proof that miracles do happen, The Washington Post reported just yesterday that a teenage girl was pulled from the rubble alive after 15 days without food or water!

The Ruly Challenge

Since we are closing out one month and preparing for another, the one thing we have not yet discussed is The Ruly Challenge.  This month, it seemed most appropriate to set The Ruly Challenge at the end of the month.  Armed with knowledge of goal setting techniques, this month’s challenge should hardly be a surprise.

The Challenge: Identify your goals for 2010.  Write them down and post them somewhere you will see them frequently.

Perhaps you will reaffirm a New Year’s Resolution, or perhaps now that the rosy shine of the new year has dimmed a bit, you might revisit what is achievable given the reality of your everyday life. Your goals might be a small rather than grand–something you have a decent chance of actually achieving come December 31.

For myself, I plan to set goals in the following categories:

• Fun
• Health
• Finance
• Relationships
• Organization

I hope that you do set organizational goals for yourself.  Rather than a broad, general goal like “Be more organized,” break it down into something small, specific and objective, like “Clean out the linen closet.” My goal for Ruly in 2010 is to help you implement organization, timesaving and stress reduction strategies in at least 3 areas of your life.  Of course, I hope that you will find much more than 3 but 3 is my target.  If there are specific areas that you are looking for help in, please share in the comments and I will see what I can do.

On Monday, we start a new month with a new theme.  Please check back then to see.  Today is the last day to receive a Ruly thank you note for your comments by e-mailing your address to info@beruly.com.  I will be practicing a resolution this weekend by sending out my thank you notes.  I continue to be impressed by the comments.  I read them all and thank you for adding life to Ruly and teaching me as well.

Have a great weekend!

Unbelievably, it is the end of another month already!  Being occupied with so many holiday preparations, the month flew by.  Here is a recap of this Ruly December:

• We kicked off the month with Rajiv Agarwal’s Ruly Mix and readers danced as they went  about their holiday preparations.
• We reviewed “Hundred Dollar Holiday” by Bill McKibben and discussed the concept of spending less for a more joyous holiday.
• We discussed several options for homemade gifts involving more time than money, specifically crafts and food.
• We discussed options for businesses to recognize the holidays and Ruly Ruth provided tips for surviving the office holiday party.
• We received expert tips for coping with holiday stress and discussed how to cope with unexpected changes, such as the east coast blizzard.
• We discussed options for streamlining tasks like mailing holiday cards and wrapping gifts and provided a worksheet to get a headstart for 2010 holiday planning.

I am still in the midst of my 2009 holiday recovery, specifically my thank you notes.  If I could have one goal for 2010 it would be to stay on top of my thank you notes.  One of my great flaws as a human being is my failure to write thank you notes.  There are tremendously generous people in my life who amazingly continue to do me favors and give me wonderful things despite my lack of thank yous.  There are also many good examples among my friends and family who meticulously write a prompt thank you note for each gift or favor (large and small) received.

Part of my hang up about writing thank you notes is a perfectionist problem.  I don’t want to write just a note acknowledging receipt, I want to write a note expressing just how fabulous I think the giver is–a note that might give them as much delight as their kindness or present gave to me.   If I would just settle for less, I am sure I could get my notes out and maybe even on time.  And, who knows, maybe the people who have received notes from me, don’t really find them all that more fabulous than just a few brief lines sent timely saying, “Thanks!  You made my day!”

Some of the blame for this perfectionist problem, however, lies in the thank you note advice commonly perpetuated.  Take this recent example from the Wall Street Journal:

“Mr. Parker usually sends his thank-you notes on four-by-six-inch cards with his name and address printed across the top. He favors heavier paper and cards with printed words that are raised . . .When writing a card, Mr. Parker eschews everyday ballpoint pens. . .  He uses ink in a different color from the printed message on the card . . . Before he writes his note, he sometimes practices writing a line several times to see how it looks on paper. . .  His rule of thumb: ‘The thought behind the thank-you should be equal to or greater than the thought that went into the gift.’”

–Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan, “The Art of the Thank You Note,” The Wall Street Journal, December 24, 2009

I have to say that I have never taken as much care with a thank you note as Geoffrey Parker.  I would never get mine out if I obsessed this much!  But I can only imagine how fabulous it must be to get one of these Parker thank yous.  I would probably end up framing mine.

With these high expectations for thank you notes, no wonder they can seem like such a burden to send!  And, of course, the longer you wait to send the thank you, the higher the expectation becomes in your mind.  At a certain point of delay, a mere thank you note no longer cuts it. A short novel describing how your life has changed from the receipt of the gift, photos and perhaps even a small gift in return seems more appropriate.

I sympathized completely with this recent posting from author/blogger Aidan Donnelley Rowley on “Pathetiquette.”

“If you are reading this and sent me a Christmas gift before 2004, I am sorry. I’m sure I liked it. Whatever it was.”

–Aidan Donnelley Rowley, “Pathetiquette” Ivy League Insecurities Blog, December 8, 2009.

While, in theory, a gift is given with nothing expected in return, it is important to say thank you.  This posting on “Why do we say ‘Thank You?’ Does it Really Matter?” at MarketingProfs has some fascinating comments by marketing professionals.  A few examples:

“Thank you is the most important part of any interpersonal relationship. . . . Thank you is the reason we do things. Not for money or glory. But, for the opportunity to have someone say Thank you . . . . ”

–Randall, WMMA

“We say thank you entirely too often on its own. To be effective – in fact, to be heard in today’s ‘thank you’ society – you must attach a situation or behavior to thanks. For instance, ‘Thank you; I appreciate your confidence in our services.’ or ‘Thank you; your research will make my report so much better.’ or ‘Thanks; this has been a great conversation. I’ll have something new to think about on my way home tonight.’

–macpaddy

While we are on the subject of thank yous, I would like to express my sincere thank you to my readers for your faithful readership and for the excellent comments that have been coming in.  Your participation adds so much value to this blog and to our collective Ruly knowledge and inspires me greatly.

Hope you have a great time ringing in 2010 and type to you on Friday!  May the new decade bring only wonderful things to all of you!

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday and that you are refreshed after a four-day weekend.  This is the time of year when life gets so busy that months flash by in seconds.  I can hardly believe we are at the end of November!

As it is the end of the month, it is time to recap what happened in November at beruly.com.

November’s focus was on food and eating.  First, we issued the Ruly Challenge to eat from your fridge and pantry stores and clean out your fridge and pantry shelves.  I must confess that I am still working on this challenge and will be cleaning out my fridge and pantry this evening.  I hope that this challenge was as valuable to you as it was to me.  There were many things I needed to be reminded of about our relationship with food, including:

• Cooking at home is as much about time as it is about money.  When I forced myself to eat at home, even on the weekends, I realized how often we eat out!  Fast food and restaurants are a frugal woman’s personal chef.  When I am planning my next grocery list, I will factor in fewer groceries to account for the times we just don’t want to eat at home.
• Although it is often cheaper to eat at home, restaurants do provide incredible quality for the price and, for the restaurants we frequent, it would probably cost us more to purchase the ingredients to reproduce restaurant meals at home than to eat out.
• I seem to purchase a lot of food that I hope I will eat because it is healthy but I don’t actually want to cook or eat.  I still have a bag of frozen scallops, several varieties of exotic rices, pancake and biscuit mix and frozen fruit left to eat.  Even though I am not eating them, it seems that I keep buying them in the hopes that maybe I will eat it if I just have more of it around!  Now that I have forced myself to eat these foods and appreciate how difficult some of them are to prepare, I will be less inclined to make impulse buys of them in the future.
• Forcing myself to eat my stores of healthy food, however, has also helped me to shake up my regular eating patterns.  I have learned to expand my range of cooking and am not as dependent on frozen or quick-to-prepare foods.
• I completely take for granted the availability of fresh, crisp produce available in all seasons of the year at the grocery store.  After eating canned vegetables for weeks, I am excited to do my December produce shopping for crisp cucumbers, fresh tomatoes and lettuce.
• One of the side benefits of having a lean fridge is that you are party-ready.  Entertaining requires a lot of fridge space for platters of food, beverages to chill, etc.  When it was time to prep for my daughter’s birthday party, we had no problem squeezing in the food we needed for the event.
• Modern American life offers few opportunities to feel deprivation.  If there is something we want, we generally buy it in a relatively short time period.  We don’t spend time longing for things.  Eating at home every day, denying yourself the pleasure of your favorite foods or restaurants, does make you feel deprived.  I often had to remind myself that for us this was a temporary experiment but for many families this is reality.  Comparing our average monthly expenses for groceries and restaurant meals to the USDA Cost of Food at Home budget shows that we generally subsist beyond the “Liberal” plan.  This was our chance to understand what the “Thrifty” budget means.
• While I generally thought that we didn’t have much “fat” in our grocery and dining budget and we aren’t generally extravagant in these expenses, we saved approximately $600 this month by eating at home!   It is a great boost going into the holiday season and also valuable to know that if we ever had to, we could stretch our budget in this area.

We also looked at organizational strategies used by restaurants and grocery stores and applied these strategies for use at home.  We poked some fun at the office fridge and discussed emergency food storage strategies.  I am still working on my emergency food storage list as I decided to taste test some of the items before buying a lot of them but my local grocery store had some great finds.  Soon, I will provide a bonus post with my list.

In addition to our food entries, we reviewed the 2010 IKEA Catalog, discussed the benefits of disorder presented in “A Perfect Mess,” and reviewed news stories related to organization.

November was also the debut of Ruly Ruth who provided insight on how to honor and remember our veterans.

Phew!  I hope you enjoyed November’s posts.  The comments and feedback posted were excellent.  We will continue to discuss food and eating strategies periodically.

On Wednesday, I will preview December’s posts.  Given the busy-ness of the holiday season, I will keep things light and promise not to add to your stress.  Type to you then!  Have a great week!