Sentry Safe Guardian Storage Box

Not to spook ya, but somewhere in the dark recesses of your filing cabinet are documents you know you want to have better protected.

Your office inventory — the one your insurance agent told you to make just in case the whole place burns to cinders — is filed away in a folder marked “Office Inventory.” This inventory lives in a cabinet which will melt to a puddle of blistered beige goo if the unthinkable happened. Ditto your tax returns, your Microsoft Stocks, and your 11th grade yearbook signed (with love and kisses) by Danny Hammond.

You might not need (or have room for) an honest-to-goodness safe, but most of us do have things which ought to be kept in a place slightly more secure than the usual cardboard accordion folder. Here, then, is a dandy answer!

Well, technically, it’s the red thing under the cat.

The Sentry Safe Guardian Storage Box is small enough to fit in my office closet (above), under your desk, light enough to carry, and works incredibly well as a footstool in a pinch. It has the same capacity as a regular storage box, but astonishingly, can withstand up to 1,200 degrees for up to twenty minutes.

I own one because the nice people at Sentry asked me to review it on my blog! How generous!

The downsides:

You can’t use hanging files. I tried. When you put the lid on, no closey.

See?

If you’re crazy about hanging files and their sticky-uppey plastic tabs (like I am), it’s an odd sensation. You mean, organize without tabs? It’s like going out in public in my bathrobe.

But I tried it.

Proof that organizing doesn't have to be perfect to be effective.

And it wasn’t awful. What I did was cut a few hanging files in half and removed the metal hangers. So there are still dividers. As long as the box is mostly full, it works pretty well.

The upsides:

I’ve been meaning to do this for years.

Technically, the IRS wants you to keep 3-7 years worth of original tax records and receipts. Not bank statements, not credit card statements — original receipts. If they burned up in a fire (God forbid) and I got audited (God further forbid), well I’m sure I’d find a way. But, ugh.

Someday I’ll scan everything (the IRS likes scans), but in the meantime having everything in there and protected makes me feel much better. I like that feeling a lot.

The really cool thing? Receiving the Guardian also motivated me to downsize two file boxes worth of old papers. It took me a weekend, but wow! I love that kind of motivation!

An inspired organizing tip:

If you leave the lid off this box, it’s useless — at least as far as fire protection is concerned. Unless you think you’ll really replace the lid consistently during regular use, plan to put touch-once-per-year archives only in here. Birth certificates. Passports. That way the lid goes right back on and you don’t have to think about it again.

Once you get the hang of putting all those important documents in here, you won’t ever have to frantically search for your passport ever again before leaving for Europe. (And when you do, will you take me with you?)

My summary

This storage box would be better if it copied its non-fireproof cousins and accommodated hanging files. Other than that, it’s pretty darned great! And I’d say the same thing even if the nice Sentry people hadn’t sent me one!

One comment

You have limited energy

Assuming you’ve had a restful night’s sleep, you wake up in the morning with a reserve of energy. Not like electricity, but like a battery. A rechargeable one.

You probably do some things that joyfully drain your battery — doing your creative work, for example. It takes energy, but it also gives you some too. Life is also full of things that drain the spirit’s battery, emptying us slowly throughout the day. There’s traffic, noise, stressful circumstances and depleting people, too. We lose this vitality without filling back up.

Perhaps you’d prefer to spend your finite energy on your work, creating revenue, using your gifts, sharing them. You can turn this desire into a sacred practice.

You deserve a sacred space

Because we live in a “more is more” culture, so many things compete for our time and energy that it becomes difficult to sense where appropriate boundaries are. What is enough? What is too much?

Boundaries? It’s a free for all. We throw up our hands in overwhelmed resignation. From this place, it’s too much effort to discern where to begin.

You can create a sacred boundary around you

It is possible to preserve and cultivate this precious energy. Even though it seems impossible with all the act-now offers and text messages and appointments and calls to return and errands to run (and even my phone rings as I type this). It is possible. You may just need to start small. Smaller than you’re accustomed to.

Unsubscribe

Unsubscribing is a perfect place to begin to reclaim your vitality and spirit. Even as you do these actions, you may incidentally improve others’ lives too. Consider these suggestions:

Unsubscribe from emails: As you look through your inbox, notice what depletes you. Notice if there are certain emails you never read. Start unsubscribing — including to this newsletter. If you don’t have the heart to offend the sender, many email programs allow you to set up a “rule” so that certain messages get automatically trashed bypassing your inbox. Same outcome: less email, more peace.
Unsubscribe from phone calls: When you get a solicitation — even at an odd hour — pick up the phone and ask to removed from the list belonging to the company calling you. Be kind to the solicitor and remember they’re working to pay the bills too. I like to say thank you at the end and wish them a good evening with a smile. It may be the only kindness they receive today.
Unsubscribe from mail: In the US, you can write “RTS” (return to sender) if a letter was mistakenly sent to you and it will be returned. If it was intended for you, call the company that sent it and ask to be removed from their mailing list. It’s worth the time. My insurance agent sends me letters occasionally asking if I’d like additional insurance products. When I emailed him today, I learned that I can unsubscribe from all their mailings at once — so I did. No hard feelings. No more junk.
Unsubscribe from advertisements: I’ve debated canceling the Sunday paper for this reason: I look through all those ads and feel all angsty and full of want for things I don’t really need. Another kind of advertisement (and feeling) comes from catalogs. If you receive them and don’t like how you feel when you look at them, pick up the phone. You’d be surprised how helpful the sales agents are — and how accustomed they are to this request. Not only will you save the company the expense of sending future mailings, you’ll save yourself the time of processing them and leaky energy that could be put to better use.

As you can see, this process is more than just organizing time or paper. I invite you to create just enough structure — to cultivate an environment that replenishes your precious energy.

Starting with these steps will enliven you and give the gift of peace to your future self. When excess email, calls, and paper decrease, what could have room to grow?

In its place, invite in more of what you want

To deepen your sense of sacred boundaries, imagine drawing around you a circle of light or flowers or love or ocean sounds (or whatever touchstones nourish you) that provide a healing, expansive buffer for your spirit. Your creative space can be like this. In the place of distraction, you can invite focus. In place of overwhelm you can invite clarity. In place of depletion, you can experience a full heart.

Start small. Nurture your spirit. See what unfolds.

6 comments

Cords.

They always seem to come up in Office Spa Day or in the Wish Kit Class…

“The cords over and under my desk look awful!”

For all the mobile (and stationary) devices we use, juice still comes out of a hole in the wall. And every cord we connect to that area adds to the visual distraction. It might not be visible when you’re seated at your desk, but stand in the doorway. Yup. There they are.

Here’s what I use in my own office. A combination of these:

And this (had to crawl around under the desk to take it):

All together, the hook and cable ties probably cost $0.11 at the hardware store.

Here are some other solutions I’ve seen:

This DIY one courtesy of Darcy (click photo for instructions):

Photo credit: RecyclArt.org

I love the 3M “Command” line of products – they stick to surfaces without damaging them. I just found out they have a kit for cord-wrangling!

You probably have the supplies for this in your drawer — it’s not perfect, but it’s simple and brilliant.

Photo credit: TokesterJokester

Here’s one IKEA cord-taming solution that looks interesting (see all 5 here).

Phot credit: Unplggd.com

Home Depot has some interesting, more permanent solutions (click for images).

Here’s one more from the Container Store called the Cord Zipper. Hat tip again to Darcy!

What do you use?

I’d love to know what you’ve found that works for you. Feel free to email me a photo and I’ll add it to this post or just comment below.

2 comments

Do we have any garam masala??

It didn’t dawn on me until I attempted to make my first real curry dish: I had no idea whether we had the right spices. I couldn’t reach most of them. The other half were in unmarked baggies.

My spice cabinet was an organizing project in waiting.

Since this is a home office blog, my spice cabinet is a stand-in for just about any organizing project you might have in your office.

• You might be out of shelf space and have no room for all your books.
• The cords under your desk look like a pit of vipers.
• You’re planning to teach a number of classes this year and have nowhere to put all the related ideas and information.

They’re all spice cabinets of the mind.

When you have an organizing project ahead, it’s helpful to know the terrain. I chronicled the steps of my own organizing process in the hopes that you’d gain some tools for your own.

Here’s what my starting point looked like:

The 6 things any organizing project needs

1. Vision

Inspired by Darcy and the images of organized spice cabinets I found on Tea & Cookies, I imagined an ideal image of what our spices cupboard could look like. I fell in love with the idea of enjoying cooking because I could find all the ingredients without swearing or knocking something to the floor.

The more photos I looked at, the more excited I became. Consistent sizes! Easy to read labels! Alphabetized! Pretty spices in pretty jars!

2. Spending plan

Being averse to the word budget, I created a spending plan. We use our spices a lot and we had some gift money from Christmas, so I planned my spending. Even though I wasn’t sure it was possible, I decided to commit $50 for the spice cupboard project.

Money is one consideration. The spending plan is also about time. How much time are you willing to devote to a project? I counted the spices and figured that 45 spice jars would take me about 2 hours to complete. Heh. More on this at the end.

3. Research and Design

With a dollar number and a time frame in mind, the next step is to start figuring out the steps to implement your vision. Research and design have to hold hands to work well together. Do a little research, sketch a rough design. Do a little more research, edit the design. Repeat.

To start, take a look at what you currently have that might be helpful to your project. I took measurements of our cabinet, checked that the shelves were truly adjustable, and counted how many spices we had.

Research your options. After looking at all the jars on Tea & Cookies, I went to a couple of local stores to compare prices and couldn’t find any I liked. I decided to order these adorable square spice jars that are the right size and capacity and were $1.10 each including shipping.

When the jars arrived I thought about how to display them. I googled images of spice racks and ended up on another organizer’s site with this brilliant, inexpensive solution to creating “stairs” that could display the spice labels (the way I saw it in my vision).

Before heading to the hardware store, I drew a sketch — a design — of what I needed.

I didn’t end up with this exact plan, but drawing it helped me figure out a better solution. I bought three 1″x 2″x 8′ boards and a friendly helper-person cut them into 9″ lengths for me (props to Lowe’s for providing this service!).

All told, the supplies and materials cost $49.20. Woohoo for the spending plan!

4. Doing the plan

Note: I didn’t say, “Follow the plan.” If you’ve ever done a project like this, you’re probably aware that it’s not a linear, Point A –> Point B process. There are detours. There are discoveries. Ideally, you roll with them and make adjustments as you go. At least I tried to.

As I arranged the shelves and played with the label maker, things started to come together according to plan. I was so happy to see how well the shelves worked — it was like playing with blocks. Fun!

My new label-maker worked like a charm, although I did have a few labeling mishaps.

It definitely got messier as I worked. This is normal. Don’t be alarmed.

And then messier still…

As the plan came along, I started to feel really great. The first shelf of spices looked awesome — just like I envisioned.

When I got to the second shelf, I realized I had a problem.

Because of my height, I couldn’t see the spice labels on the second row. Or the third. Inspired Spouse is 5 inches shorter than me, so just tippy-toeing wouldn’t work. I figured this issue would be worse up on shelf #3, the highest one. It never dawned on me in the Research and Design phase to measure myself.

I tried redesigning the plan. I played with the configuration of blocks to give the jars a boost up. And then, just like that, I got stuck. Nothing worked. I wondered angrily, “What’s the point of labeling if you can’t read the labels?” I started to think the whole project was a bust.

Anxiously, I sought the ear of my devoted, patient Inspired Spouse who listened as I recounted everything I’d tried.

–  Shit! It’s not working!

– It’s okay. No one’s going to die.

– (pause) (laughter) Oh, right. I’m taking this too seriously.

Sometimes a loving, level head is just the thing. In fact, the shelf issue got better from there and I found a decent solution. A re-re-re-re-re-re-design.

However, lots of people get to this stuck/angry/helpless point and don’t know it’s totally normal. Doing the plan includes getting stuck and taking detours. When it happens, take a little space or share it with someone who’s willing to listen. When you resolve the stuckness, you’ll get moving toward your vision again.

Before and afters — coming up next.

5. Clean up

This is the part of the creative process I usually put off. It’s no fun. I had all these glass and plastic jars left over, old spices to compost, unused wood blocks and new jars to find homes for. This is why I do Office Spa Days — we all have cleanup to do and encouraging support can help. It’s also helpful to build cleanup time into your spending plan since ideally the whole project includes the time it takes to truly complete it.

I did get it all cleaned up — partly because I knew I would be blogging about it and showing you my before-and-after photos. So, without further ado, here they are!

* The big reveal *

Before and after:

6. Celebration

Look at what you’ve created. Really look at it — and partay! It’s so easy to rush to the next thing without pausing to enjoy it.

I called Inspired Spouse back into the kitchen for the nth time and we looked at my creation together. I held up the camera to compare it to the starting point. We marveled together.

It’s okay to feel proud of yourself and pause a while to recognize your accomplishment. In fact, we’re more likely to do something like this again if it feels good. So celebrate you! Celebrate your vision — even if it didn’t come out exactly the way you expected. You did it!

I did it! Yay!

How long did it take?

Good question. Most people under-guess how long a project takes to complete. It’s part of our natural optimism. One of the interesting and fun things we do in the 6-month clutter-clearing class is practice guessing (in advance) how long a project will take from start to finish.

Want to play?

Comment below how many hours and minutes you think it took me to do all the steps mentioned in this project. The first person to guess the exact duration before this Friday will receive a $25 gift certificate to Spice and Tea.com to add to your own seasonings collection! Everyone else will receive Jen’s Semi-Famous Fajita Seasoning recipe (it’s awesome!).

So that’s organizing projects in a nutshell!

Feel free to share your about your own organizing project experiences – past, present or future.

29 comments

In-joke at the Inspired House

When someone makes a mistake around here, we jokingly fire one another. When Inspired Spouse forgets to take out the garbage, she’s fired. When the cats scratch my office chair or jump on the counter, they’re fired. “You’re fired, Pepper!” It’s a silly way to protest something without offending anyone. Humor lightens things that could otherwise be taken personally. Now you’re in on the in-joke.

Unfortunately, I’ve gotten fired for the same thing two weeks in a row. That thing is my failure to check the voice mail which allows an unfortunate number of messages to add up (5 one week and 7 the next). Inspired Spouse didn’t think it was so funny the second time.

Honestly, I hate voice mail. I am tactile — and voice mail isn’t something you can touch. I am visual — and I can’t see it either. Back in the 90′s when I had an old tape-playing answering machine, I was pretty good about it because I could touch the buttons and see the blinking red light. Remember those itty bitty cassettes? I loved my answering machine!

Fast forward 15 years, and now my phone company gives me super-slick digital voice mail at no extra charge. It would be a great deal except sometimes I go a whole week without checking my voice mail. I can hear the little “boop-boop-boop” dial tone thing when I pick up the phone, but I ignore it. Auditory processing is not my strong suit.

It’s not me. It’s not you, either.

Is there something wrong with me because I don’t use this handy tool? Of course not. Is it frustrating and unprofessional? Yes to both.

When people ask about the most effective software programs, gadgets, and apps, it’s a similar scenario. There’s nothing wrong with technology, but you have to first discern whether a particular tool is a good fit for you.

What’s the difference between tools that are truly helpful and those that are a frustrating failure?

The organizing truth: The best tools work the same way your brain naturally does. When you use a tool that’s outside of your natural skill set, it’s less likely to work for you. It will create more frustration.

How can you tell? If you procrastinate using something or dread it or it takes forever, that’s usually an indication that the tool isn’t a good fit for you. If it’s easy and fun, keep doing it. You’re on the right path.

It’s partly the tool, but it’s also…

When you’re thinking about adding a tool (like software, a gadget, or something low-tech like a file folder system), think about what your intention is. Think about how others will benefit when you use this item. For example, I use voice mail because it’s my intention to provide clients multiple ways to connect with me and, in turn, to respond to them promptly, professionally, and compassionately.

At the moment, my intention isn’t matching the reality if I only check voice mail once a week. But I can think of other options that could work better for me and still match my intention.

Thinking about your intention connects you with the bigger picture, freeing you up to see other options besides the tool that’s causing your problems.

Thinking it over

Something really astonishing happened last night when I decided to broach the subject of my firing with Inspired Spouse — and brainstorm a better solution. Since I’m visual and tactile, I shared that the best scenario for me would involve receiving paper messages, placed on my computer keyboard (in a perfect, and probably unrealistic world, I thought). I hesitated to tell her this because I didn’t want her to be my secretary (it is MY business after all!), but I shared anyway.

Here’s what she said, “Do you realize I’ve offered to do that for you at least 3 times in the last year?” Huh! You know, come to think of it, she had - and I had dismissed it! So if you happen to leave a voice mail for me, you now have a new message-taker. And I’ll reply SO much faster now.

If you’re struggling with technology or organizing, think about what would work best for you and those with whom you’re in contact. Talk it out with someone if you get stuck. Try things out — and remember that organizing isn’t a destination; it’s a process of discovering what you need over time and using your creativity to address those needs. You’re worth it!

7 comments

The “What do YOU do?” series gives you a glimpse into my life as a messy, creative person and invites you to share your organizing insights and ideas.

Business cards

We put so much work into designing our own and so much money on printing and so much courage into sharing them, it feels terrible to just throw out someone else’s card. Don’t you agree?

Here’s what I do

When it comes to business cards, I have a politeness policy: I accept them if offered (and take them if I want them), but with the inner understanding that I’ll toss/recycle them if I don’t plan to use the information.

It hasn’t always been this way, but I’ve reached a level of trust that when I need something, the right thing will come along. If I need a painter, I’ll ask around and find the perfect person. It takes too much energy for me to hang on to business cards just because I might need them someday. I’m not willing to devote time to organizing every single one anymore.

The business cards I do keep? They go into an alphabetized folder with these handy plastic sheets that look like this (link provided for reference).

I don’t use it often, but it’s helpful to have – and all those cute little cards stay contained.

It’s worth mentioning that I don’t alphabetize by last name. I file by what I’ll remember. If I look at the card and the first thing that comes to mind is “recycling”, I file it under “R”. If I know that I only remember the person’s first name, I highlight it and put it under the corresponding letter. It’s only a system that works for me, but that’s the point. It works. : )

How about you?

Your turn! If you’d like, please share what you’re doing that helps you keep track of business cards. Your ideas help everyone!

Your comments on your own process are welcome. Just remember to give advice to me or others only when it’s specifically requested. This makes exploring safe and learning possible for every reader.

4 comments

Dr. Abby Heppner

What she does: Abby Heppner is a chiropractic doctor in Salem, Oregon who owns her own practice and works with families to prevent and treat pain.

What she loves best about her office: If we’d asked a month ago, she would have said, “Nothing.” Since she’s read Fun In Functional, she found a way to make the things she looks at positive and beautiful even in a tiny, shared office. Wow!

Abby’s organizing genius idea:

Abby went from having what she called the “Post-it(R) Note Crazy Wall,” to containing all those notes into 3 elegant, labeled manila files:

• Things to do this week
• Things to do next week
• Long-term projects

The best parts of this system for Abby:

• A place to put all those tiny sticky notes.
• The folders fit in her laptop bag and are easy to transport.
• Notes are reduced into small, digestible chunks of information.
• She knows when the actions need to be done.
• She can see when she’s finished with the week’s tasks.

Impact on her business:

• Feeling less overwhelmed and more in control.
• Neater piles and less stuff.
• Things seem more manageable because she’s taking on only what she can do.
• More present with her patients.

Listen to the recording (12 minutes)

Genius quote:

“It’s so much nicer to have a clean little space than a messy little space.”
- Dr. Abby Heppner

Care to comment?

The “What do YOU do?” series gives you a glimpse into my life as a messy, creative person and invites you to share your organizing insights and ideas.

Online distractions.

Although the Web and email are all pretty handy tools, sometimes they’re so visually stimulating that they feel like threats. Enemies. Barriers to concentration.

If you want to focus, there are lots of ways to prevent distraction and still get the most from these tools.

Here’s what I do prevent online distraction

• Close browser tabs - Firefox and Internet Explorer (and I’m sure many other browsers) allow users to open an infinite number of tabs. I just know that if the little tab says Facebook, I will click on it whether I really want to go on Facebook or not. So I keep it (and other distracting websites) closed. In fact, I keep as few open as possible. Usually just my gmail and gcal are open.

• Prevent popups - Most of us know about pop-ups from websites. But I’m talking about the pop-ups that Skype creates every time one of my contacts gets online. And the pop-up on gmail when someone wants to instant message me. And the pop-up that appears when an email comes into your inbox.

Concentration is hard enough without pop-ups, so I’ve turned them all off. With Skype, I have to actually log off. With gmail, I have to select my status as “offline”. If you have Outlook, you can opt out of the “so-and-so has sent you a message” announcements. And good riddance!

Here’s what I’m working on

• Twitter and Tweetdeck – I’m not sure I’m actually working on this, but I’m aware that although I keep very few browser windows open, I almost always have TweetDeck (a tool that makes Twitter easier to use) open. I’m still figuring out if it’s a distraction or a tool – or both.

What do YOU do that minimizes online distractions?

Your turn! If you’d like, please share what you’re doing that helps you in your business and/or life – and also something that you’re working on/experimenting with.

Your comments on your own process are welcome. Just remember to give advice to me or others only when it’s specifically requested. This makes exploring safe and learning possible for every reader.

6 comments

If you want organizing that sticks around, one of the most effective, compassionate things you can do is make small tweaks to the systems you already have. Tiny ones.

Today, I’m inviting smARTists and regular readers to share:

What’s one tweak you’d like to experiment with that would help you feel more focused or organized?

And if you’re in the smARTist program this week, you’re also welcome to share something from my presentation that you’re planning to try out.

Why are you asking this?

It is so powerful to state an intention out loud and to have respectful, encouraging witnesses. By creating a place to witness your tweaky intention, you have a better chance of making it happen.

10 comments

I love this quote.

“You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” — E. L. Doctorow (via @artcetera)

If you’re frustrated by the amount of email you have, or the amount of work, or the volume of paper on your desk, or the frazzled nerves in your brain, or the lack of time to do things…

Just remember that you don’t have to do the whole thing. You only need to do the next thing.

• If you have boatload of work to do, pick one thing – even the easiest thing – and start with that.
• If you have a ton of email to read and reply to, start with the one on the bottom.
• If you haven’t had time to write a single Christmas or New Year’s card, don’t do all of them. Just start with one.

It’s the season where you can knock yourself flat, deplete your spirit, and snarl at loved ones.  Not because you want to, but because there’s just so much happening at once that it’s hard to decide where to start.

Just like the quote says, shine your light on one thing. Start with that. You’ll still get to your destination – and you might even feel lighter and more peaceful when you arrive.

For me, that means clicking “publish” on this post so I can share it with you.

What’s the next thing for you?

12 comments