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Posts Tagged ‘DIY hide away printer drawer’

The Hidden Printer

By Annie | June 19, 2013 | 3

Welcome

Annie Traurig was born with the ability to see order through clutter. As a child, she spent playdates organizing friends’ closets and packing their duffle bags for summer camp.

ABOUT LIVE SIMPLY

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Simplify Your World

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Our favorite systems in this kitchen:

-a cutting drawer. We institute one every chance we get. Knives + cutting boards living together in harmony.

-foil and parchment paper living in close proximity to the oven and grill, rather than being stored with the other wraps and bags (because who says they have to go together if they don’t ACTUALLY go together.😘)

-decanted spice library. Hello. Welcome.

-kid-cutlery drawer. Until they outgrow those baby spoons, they deserve a dedicated space.

-canned goods with legs (aka on turntables). Placing them up high with the ability to spin takes advantage of what might otherwise be dead space, and ensures the contents remain equally accessible.

HAPPY ORGANIZING INSPO WE HOPE XOXO

#professionalorganizing #kitchenorganization #kitchenorganizer

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Most people are in the habit of massively over-estimating how much they can realistically accomplish.

In the span of a single editing session, our average client will attempt to task themselves with a list that includes things like taking a pair of shoes in to be re-soled, sending a gift to a friend, taking a broken necklace into the jeweler, and on and on.

Part of our work is helping people to re-write their self-perceptions, oftentimes from a person who procrastinates or avoids to one who is capital c Capable.

That’s why it’s imperative that we help people narrow their responsibility list. The more selective the tasks, the more likely they are to be accomplished.
Attempt to do it all, and you’re likely to do little of significance, bolstering a negative perception of self as a result.

It’s as true about tangible items in your space as it is the intangibles of time management: excess overwhelms.

From a state of overwhelm, you’re not able to focus easily or work efficiently. The number of tasks that you’re able to follow through on dwindles rapidly as a result.

If you drown yourself in overwhelm long enough, you can start to believe your lack of follow-through is a defining characteristic. And, in time, lack of faith in your ability to reach the finish line can deter you from any attempts to begin.

What if it isn’t that you’re incapable of following through, only that you’ve been overloading yourself?
What if your weakness all along hasn’t been an ability to complete tasks, but to decipher which are worth your time and which are entirely unrealistic given your givens?

That would mean you have what it takes to finish what you start.

Be intentional about what you ask of yourself. Commit to less to achieve more.

Two things done well are worth infinitely more than twelve done shoddily, or not at all.

[Calendar designed by @arielm_garcia ]

#followthrough #timemanagementtips #todolists

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Mandatory repost. Don’t get lost out there this holiday weekend…😘

#consciousconsumer #organizedliving #overconsumption

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Tell yourself this ‘til it sticks.

YOU are worthy of excellent care. The kind of care you would have lavished on your children, or your parents, or your guests.

You are worthy of ease and joy and calm.

You are worthy of having systems in place that serve you and propel you towards being your best self.

Every space is an opportunity to communicate that messaging to your most important self.

If you think it’s just a room filled with clothes, you haven’t reached the real point yet.

#professionalorganizing #closetorganizer #organizinginspiration

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If your life is stable, you generally see the same things in the same context day after day. The sight of your coffee maker on the counter. Of that pile in the corner of your bedroom. Your walls.

When you first moved in, you noticed every detail–the scratches in the baseboards or the beauty of the tile floor. When you first bought that blouse, you paid attention to its stitching, to its certain hue. When you were young you were fascinated by the existence of your belly button and pinky toes, probably.

But as your brain began to recognize the familiar (and deemed it non-threatening), it went into energy conservation mode. It stopped noticing the details. What was once an intricate picture blurred into a hazier scene. Home. Family. Body.

When we stop perceiving nuance, we risk losing our sense of gratitude for what we have. Or we fail to recognize the shabby state of things. Or we can mistakenly believe that our lives are fixed. That our beliefs, appearances, who we surround ourselves with, and how our days are designed were cemented ages ago, and that it’s impossible to make a change.

But the picture is ever evolving. We’re never trapped. One of the greatest, albeit underutilized, tricks in the book is to harness the power of the reframe.

(Continued in comments)

[calendar designed exclusively by @arielm_garcia ]

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POV: getting your kitchen professionally organized…

#professionalorganizing #kitchenorganization #professionalorganizer

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Take a peek inside a recent Live Simply pantry organizing project…

This one was another opportunity for us to inject care, intention and joy into the systems we create. With ample breathing room, clearly defined systems, distinct zones, AND room to grow, this space will hopefully serve its owners for years to come.

#professionalorganizing #kitchenorganization #organizinginspiration

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If I had an item for every time a client professed their adoration for a belonging they never use because they’re “saving it,” or “too scared about damaging it to actually use it,” I could stock a whole store. Its shelves would be filled with the nicest versions of every sort of thing: bougie skincare, covetable fragrances, blouses and dresses (white), designer handbags, linens from the South of France, antique coupe glasses from grandparents, and on and on.

The list of things people simultaneously own and withhold from themselves is long and varied, but the common mindset is clear: “Save the good stuff for later.”

Save it for what? For whom? Or for when, exactly?

What is the point of having treasured items if we are not to enjoy them?

The notion that you should save the good stuff becomes silly when you consider that its intent is to protect you from being without in the future…by going without in the present.

Even sillier is the belief that you, in your apparently banal everyday life, are unworthy of the most excellent treatment you’re able to procure.

There is no coming Golden Day. There will be no point at which a sign appears announcing “Today is the day you’re worthy of the best, so wear the special shirt and shoes you’ve been saving!”

The time to enjoy your life is now. These, everyday, real-life days are the most glorious ones you’ll get.

I’m not recommending you serve your toddler her yogurt on your prized fine china, or wear your handstitched, white silk blouse to go paint ceramics. Common sense reigns. But deferring to the fear of damaging your belongings by way of general use reaches a point when it isn’t prudent, but self-denial.

Precious as they may be, things are just things. Their purpose is to be used as tools for your ease and delight. Your job is not to do everything within your power to preserve them, but to be present to the grandeur and luxury of your getting to be alive, delighting in the beauty around you.

We are the only ones we need to do our very best to care for as if we were meant to last for eternity.

[calendar designed exclusively by @arielm_garcia ]

#enjoyment #enjoyeverymoment❤️

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Welcome back to this client’s dream lady-pad move-in project…

#professionalorganizing #closetorganization #closetorganizer

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POV: turning chaos into culinary calm…

#professionalorganizing #kitchenorganization #kitchenorganizer

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Closet organizing projects are a perpetual favorite, for clients and for our team. Few other spaces have such a deep impact on a person’s daily life and self-image.

Styled and unpacked by @tiffanywendelstylist, these closets were a delight to add our signature Simply effect to.

#closetorganization #closetorganizer #professionalorganizing

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“All of that came from my basement!?” She pointed to the mountainous pile we accumulated in her entry during the course of our editing session.

We’re used to the scale of donations that so often leaves people’s homes, but she was flabbergasted.

“Why didn’t I do this sooner??” She exclaimed. “I feel SO much LIGHTER!”

It’s a common phrase we hear from clients, and it doesn’t get old.

The lightness that comes from editing is multi-layered.

First is the relief of unburdening oneself of so many would-be responsibilities. Releasing the excess and the extraneous instantly causes an expansion of your bandwidth. Relieved of so many distractions, you feel the lightness of clarity–of knowing precisely what you own, why you own it, and where it belongs in your space. Having a sense of manageability, rather than overwhelm, is powerfully uplifting.

There is also a higher level of lightness that comes as a result of our editing work.

To edit one’s belongings is to center yourself in the present. It is to ground yourself in the truth of who you are now. It compels you to release past versions of yourself, and of the baggage of stale identities or life phases you’ve been carrying around. Letting go of the items that once facilitated activities you no longer do—of clothing you no longer wear, even of food you no longer consume—creates a sense of evolution.
The lightness that our client felt that day, that all of our clients hopefully feel as a result of our work together, is the lightness of honesty with oneself, peace in the present, and calm in one’s surroundings.

Liberation may be more feasible than you’d think. It might just be one edited basement away.

[calendar designed by @arielm_garcia ]

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No other thoughts…🙊🙊🤣

#organizingtips #closetorganization

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Feels like the right time to post this one for the hundredth time…

#memorialdaysale #memorialdayweekend #saleshopping

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Come along on a recent Live Simply move-in project…

#organizingexperts #organizers #professionalorganizing

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Expiration dates are indisputable proof of how long an item has been in your possession. That is valuable information when it comes to editing.

An expired product—whether or not you believe in its safety/ efficacy—has a high likelihood of being unnecessary in your life.

Maybe you’ve let it get out of date because you had too many other options in line ahead of it. Or because you started to prefer an alternative. Or because you stopped eating canned goods altogether. Or because you bought it because you had that weird skin thing that one time and not again since.

Whatever the reason, when you’re looking for ways to lighten your load, expired goods are a low-hanging (potentially rotten and/or flavorless fruit).

#professionalorganizing #declutteryourhome #declutteryourlife #expirationdates #editinghelp

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One’s spiritual center and a Birmingham, Michigan, Coney Island Restaurant would appear to have nothing in common.

The first is an intangible–one’s source of higher knowing, tuned into through calm and focused stillness. The other, a restaurant at which you might grab a hot dog, greek salad, and chicken finger pita.

For me, the two are inextricably linked.

There was a year or two in my childhood when my mom and I had dates at Leo’s Coney Island so often that we had a regular booth, waitress, and order. It was a tumultuous time for my family; my sister was struggling, and my mom’s MS was rearing its brutally ugly head. Sensing my increased need for respite, my mom made our lunch dates a priority. Some days she insisted it was more important than school.

The two of us would sit in that little red leather booth for what felt like hours. We talked and laughed and ate.

I can’t recall any one conversation in particular, but I remember what it felt like. I remember our delight in having a secret escape, a place no one else knew we went, but where we were known. I remember the feeling of her presence and focused attention, and the way she saw me so fully for who I was. No pretense, no distraction, no performing. Pure connection. Joy. Love.

When I feel my busy brain go into warp speed, cataloguing the list of things I need to do and the things I’m not doing, I close my eyes, and think of the two of us in that booth. I focus on the feeling that the memory represents. All of the busy-ness and bullshit fades away, and I feel myself centering again.

Whatever kind of life you’ve lived, there must surely have been a moment along the way when you remember feeling good, safe, and at peace.

Maybe it was the time you spent at the beach as a child. Or, maybe it’s holding your own child. Maybe it’s a vacation you took, or a time you sat and marveled at a particularly beautiful scene.

When you feel yourself going off kilter, close your eyes, take three deep breaths, and tune into it. The place. The people there. The way it looked. How you felt.

Let that memory be your portal to your spiritual core and to the truth of who you are.

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Thanks to a special person in my life for the reminder that some (very well meaning, no doubt) people are still under the impression that goodie bags are a Thing, when they absolutely, most certainly ought not to be.

Save your money. Save the planet! Spare other parents. Pour all the resources you would have directed into bags meant for after the event into the event itself.

#professionalorganizing #clutterfree #clutterfreeliving #declutteringtips #goodiebags

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Come along on a recent kitchen move in day…

#professionalorganizing #kitchenorganization #kitchenorganizer

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There’s a poignant scene in the Barbie movie when Margot Robbie’s character, Barbie, sits on a bench next to an older woman. Barbie is dejected, crying, her shiny blonde bubble having been burst by existential wonderings, which neither her Dream House, her Ken, or her coif can nullify.

The older woman beside Barbie exudes the confidence of vulnerability, experience, and age. The beauty of her humanity is so striking to Barbie that she tells the woman so. Her bench partner replies, “I know.”

It’s worth noting that Greta Gerwig, the film’s creator, declined the urging to delete the scene, saying that without it, she wasn’t sure what the film’s message was.

But of course the recommendation would have been to remove the scene; our society celebrates shininess while overlooking shine. After all, shine is not a marketable commodity.

Shininess, on the other hand, is sold to us in spades: Buy the right status symbols of trendy clothes and covetable bags; drive the right car, belong to the right clubs; wear the best makeup and skincare, achieve the perfect look and you’ll communicate to the world that you are important and in the know and surely you’ll be happy, we’re told.

Instead, what we find is that the endless pursuit of a shiny exterior only convinces us that we are unremarkable without increasing amounts of it.

Shine is different. When you love and accept yourself on a deep level–not for what you look like but for who you are–you kindle an internal light that does not hinge on external factors. When you are tapped into the truth of your worth, show up authentically, and communicate directly, you allow the essence that is you to shine with a radiance that disarms, and that inspires others to beam as well.

Shininess is perpetually dimming and dulling.

Shine grows stronger and brighter as you work to connect with yourself.

One is a futile pursuit that leaves you with less than you started with; the other is a relationship that provides increasing empowerment and fulfilment.

Barbie ultimately chooses to pursue the latter. Which will you?

[calendar designed exclusively by @arielm_garcia ]

#mytimetoshine

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