"Visual Noise" Quote by Elise M. Wood, Dancing Oaks Ranch, Texas.

I have a very tidy bachelor friend named Christopher T. Wood. He loves to use his full name, and also loves to say his phone number on every single voicemail he leaves (8 years now). That can be 3 messages a month or 3 messages a day (if he's got interesting info or is just driving by your house). I tell him that I and 99% of the people he calls already have his number plugged into our phones, and if NOT, they have it visually on the screen (he doesn't block his number, he's not rude or self important) - yet, he rattles it off every single time, as the hardest working actor of a certain age should. 

The other day I called back that number I have on 47 voicemails, just to chat. I was commending him on being such a tidy bachelor, and he said, "I had a bad habit of filling the sink with dishes, (instead of putting them in the dishwasher every time) then hand washing and leaving them in the drainer. My sister called it 'Visual Noise.'"

I loved that. It sums up what I've been preaching (to myself) for years. Now, Noise is differently defined for everyone. Some "noise" most people disagree on; different music, political yapping, talk radio, tap dancing, drum circles and the like. The last one there makes me want to pull my hair out, but a talented drummer on a street corner makes me want to dance - it's a very fine line. Other noises, many of us can agree on, like what is happening outside my window at this very moment, a circular saw cutting wood planks in my yard. Nail gun to follow. I am mustering through, probably because as a city dweller of 28 years, I've learned to work around it. Also, in LA, we have low-flying Police Helicopters about 200 days of the year, and the obligatory emergency sirens everyday. Dog howls to follow. NY, SF & LA, it's just how it is. The omnipresent Audible Noise. Think about living in it daily, (as you already may & millions do) then think about escaping it by coming home, to your nest, your sanctuary, your respite from the world, and it looks like this: 

It doesn't have to. I know I sound like a broken record (can we still use that idiom? It has actually made it into "Urban Dictionary" :-/ ) 

It doesn't have to look like this and you don't have to feel like this. These photos may be extreme, but they are real. And more common than you'd think. There's no need to feel shame. But there is a need to feel better, about yourself and your surroundings. It's why you shower, it's why you dress well when you need to. You do that for the world around you; why, why, why would you not do that for your self?  

You can do it on your own, or I can help you.  However, 

if you need some more convincing, here's what a UCLA study has found. Also in this article are great tips for getting started on your own!

Clutter & Depression

So, after a day of sirens, horns, garbage trucks, street cleaners,  helicopters, construction, traffic and  barking/howling dogs . . . 

wouldn't you like to come home to this instead?

 

Wouldn't this feel good? It felt good for me to do it, and it felt good for my clients when I left - they've all told me so & I believe them :)  

As Always, Thanks for reading! 

Desk, or a desert of deserted mail...?

Do you use your desk? No, no, I mean use it, like plop your laptop on there, open it up and type? Sit down, open a bill or two, and pay them? THEN you file the paper bill or e-receipt away, right, right, right??

If you say YES! WOOOHOOOOO, you're awesome and you don't need me. If you say NO, you're still awesome and the most awesome thing 

you could do for yourself is to call me. 

If your desk is used, but only as a dropbox and a paper desert, and you're hoping an oasis of organization will sprout one day - hopefully before your brain explodes cus the power or water accidentally 

got cut off due to a lost bill or missed email while it's 95 degrees, well:

It doesn't have to be this way --------->

You don't have to live like this --------->

<--------- It can simply be like this. 

     OR this -------------->

<--------- AND this.





And, now, for this awesome client, it is. She is happy. I am happy. Look, I'm not saying I "sell happiness" but I AM saying it's the number two side effect of my work. Number one is relief. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, then . . . HAPPY! 

POOF, Instant Kitchen!

One year to Remodel. One Year in a rental house. One year with her displaced, old-as-the-hills, sweetest pooch. One week to move back in. 

<--------------

The kitchen, after an attempted unpacking. We'll call it . . .

Pre "Ruby" ;-)

Now, I think the easiest way to go about this is to just go drawer-by-drawer, cabinet-by-cabinent. Pictures say a thousand words. But in case they don't tell you this: Yes, I unpacked and organized it. All.  

 

 

The Pantry:

                                                                                                       

Utility Drawers:

Bathroom Drawers:

The Den, In Progress:

   

The Den was finished wonderfully by the client and she has her dream home back, and in much better shape. 

Some photos omitted, there's only so many utensil drawers one can take. I don't have much to say except I LOVED doing this! It's like working a giant puzzle, on my own terms, with a 16 GB ipod attached to my scull ~ and I win every time! 

xo ruby

God Damn PAPERWORK!

Hello! Long time no blog! I have been lazy, in blogging, but not in organizing! Hopefully, this is one of 3 posts I've been meaning to do.

SO, it's tax time and all that paper piling up is possibly important, no? Possibly~ luckily for me, and this particular Client last week, he is not writing off any of these stacks / piles / throngs / troves / masses . . . this mother load of paper bits was mostly for the shredding pile, but there was still the task of sifting through and looking at each one. We found roughly 8 new gift cards for various places, a $168 claim for lost funds to CA Employment Division and a $517 check from a job a year ago, un-cashed! He called that employer who is willing to reissue once he checks his records to make sure it wasn't reissued already ~ with all these $$ finds, I think he came out ahead with just the gift-card findings alone even after he paid me ~ plus the $168 & $517 checks, if they come through. He made money by hiring me! That's a good day :)

Hi, I'm Desk. Do I Stress you out? Sorry~

I'm simply a corner,
Once bathed in the sun :(

 The sun shines outside, but not for me. 

HI!! Now I am happy, so YOU are happy! 

I, Floor, cannot breath very well...

My books are about to commit suicide.
Signed, The Shelf

My books now choose LIFE!
And D. Floor can breath again!

Thanks for stopping by! Call me if you need me ~ Happy March :)