Vacations

Winter’s Here – Where’s the Gear?

Thursday, January 20th, 2011

Skis organizationThrough the snow on my camera lens, you’ll see pairs of skis, hanging on the wall, just before you would walk  into the building. The building is a back door to The Trapp Family Lodge. I thought this was so smart that I had to click the picture, even though I was on vacation.

Picture something  like this working at your house if you have ever said:

“Where’s the other ski?”  “Why do you have to track in all that snow?” “I’ve got the  skis. Where are the poles?”

And so you’re frustrated, late to get on the road, and it just keeps happening every time you try get out to ski.

The product above was a simple board with large pegs. The skis could lean against the board and stay separated by the pair. The ski pole hand straps fit over the pegs. Easy.

Get the big items out of the way before you walk in the house. Inside, have a bench, where old and young alike can sit, take off the boots, socks, and clothing. Even better, if like one client did, you had a laundry catcher within a basket ball’s throw.

As always, this is only the organizing product.

There is the habit to develop and teach to the rest of your household. A product can look good, but people need to use it to be effective.

But – sometimes, the organizing product is the piece that’s missing, so when you install it, people naturally use it.

Here are two other ideas I saw and liked:

knapsack organizing

As you walked into one of the mountain lodges, this organizational genius greeted you. The full length of this frame with pegs was about 15 feet. Hang your knapsacks on it as you walk in. Or use it as you sit down to eat, keeping  your gear close by but out of the way. Great use of vertical space — what we constantly hear in organizing discussions.

gear organization

And through a different entryway, here’s another organizational product which was there  for you. If you carried your gear in a duffel bag, these lockers were right there for you to easily drop off your stuff ’til you needed it.

Interesting, too, that all three places  operated on the honor system. You don’t see  that often these  days.

I’m posting these photos because while each organizing setup is for large volumes of packs and gear, you may find a miniature version of any of these would work beautifully at your house.

And wouldn’t it feel a whole lot better  next time you go to pack up your gear to know that it is all right where you put it last ski trip, and it is all together. What kind of time and stress would that save you?

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Clear the Decks

Monday, September 20th, 2010

You’re crunched for  time. A crisis. How do you organize your time so you don’t burn out, get the right things  done, and don’t  end up sick at the end of it all. What’s the crisis? It’s whatever is crunching your time so that you feel like you can’t breathe.

For me, it was dad’s surgery along with my housemate being at home recuperating from surgery during the same time period.  It  could be that you’re moving your mother in to live with you. You might be moving homes or offices. Or you’re headed out on a trip,vacation or business, and you haven’t traveled in awhile. These are all typical crunch times and require we consider different means to organize our time and get things done.

The crisis takes  over our emotions, our creative thinking (sometimes) and our rational thinking (sometimes). So if you have something going on now or may soon, read these ideas with your time crunch in mind.

Clear  the decks: the  week of surgery, I took no clients. I blocked out the time weeks ahead for my housemate’s surgery, but had to make calls and emails the day before dad’s surgery.

Clear one more thing than you think  you really need to.  Do we ever have extra time? No, so clear the  decks with one more thing than you might typically. This will reduced your expectations of yourself and so your stress levels.

Decide  whether to change your work email and voicemail messages. I did not, because I had my  Blackberry with me. I thought I’d see if I could handle things. As the laws of attraction would have it, this turned out to be a “less busy” week. But you may want to set those away messages, so that you control whether to answer or not.

Technology: gotta love it at this time. My Blackberry was a lifesaver for  communicating with my two brothers and my cousin. We texted status updates n dad, directions from the parking garage to his rooms, our own arrival status, and late night ideas and questions. We were in sync.

Divide up your big crisis  into smaller chunks of time. For me, it was: let’s get  through the day of diagnostics. Then the  surgery. Then day one post-op. Then the week. To rehab. And to home … with still more phases to go, but smaller chunks of time/emotion was (a) easier  to manage emotionally (b) easier to rejigger what had to get done at home and at work. So if you’re going on a trip, it might be the week before the trip, the week of the trip, the day before the trip, etc.

Deadlines: for  work, I isolated the key deadlines I’d have to move. And I moved them right  away, reaching out to explain why I needed more  time. People were wonderful. I chipped away at some of the work, and with dad home now, I can take more time with each.  I moved some items to a “revisit in November”  list.

At home: I kept a “do later” list. Some cleaning tasks landed here. Outside work landed on this list. They seemed lower priority at the time. Later on, choose a weekend day and plow through it.

When I am going to leave on a trip, I keep a “must  do before I leave  list,” and a “if time,do before” list. The latter are ones which could be done while on a business trip or after the business/vacation.

Notice what time of day you’re best at creating, writing, thinking, or doing those small and easy items. Each day, figure out what you might fit it based on this. In one of the weeks, I had only one  time to write, about an hour. Writing is a mental break, so  I needed it but I hadn’t had the energy, emotion or focus to do it  before then.Fit the  work with your energy levels.

Keep a separate list of things to be done. Several of us kept a small binder  with us all the time we were with dad (and I did  this for my housemate, too). They’d think of  something and ask you to  do it. Or you discuss something for when they are home. Decisions you’ll want to discuss with them again. So on dad’s list it was things like: buy a new and faster computer, print off his email once home, get mom a new cell phone, empty the flower boxes, put up the storm  windows, get the car out of the regional hospital parking lot where dad had left it.

We divided and conquered according to skills and  geographic proximity. We also used our binders to keep track of the changing rooms as he  got better. Phone numbers, people to call or email. One  binder, just while the person is in the hospital. When I leave on vacation or on a business trip, I don’t keep a binder, but I keep one list, only about things to do for the trip. It stays on my kitchen household  office desk so as I pass by, I can add items or take some off by doing them. Always with me or in  sight.

Eat out. This is a way to make sure you eat during times of crisis. We stopped at the cafe on our way in and I think on our way out sometimes. Planning, shopping,  meal prep and cleanup – when you add up the time this takes, it’s a good amount of time. For us, we spent money instead sometimes, as a trade for having more time. Quick stops, not long leisurely restaurant dinners.

Keep in mind, this was a short period of time, though. And when  I leave  on a trip, we  eat out the night before. That also gives me a deadline of being ready before dinnertime instead of staying  up ’til midnight getting ready!

Hire people to do things for you during this  time, so you create more time for yourself. You might be surprised at how differently you value money versus your time when in a crisis.

Keep a separate bag for hospital trips. In it, I kept my binder/list,  things to bring to dad, to mom or my brothers. People I know who have to make regular hospital trips (dialysis, chemo) keep a separate bag and it  includes things to do while you wait. Drop items in when you think of them and  you’ll be ready to go at the  drop of a hat.

Know your own signals that you are becoming overwhelmed. Learn them. You’ll be no good to anyone if you don’t focus on self-care as well as  the  person in crisis.

Even if you can’t exercise for your regular full time, take a walk for 15 minutes. If you can’t meditate in the a.m., try it at night. You always grocery shop on Sundays but you’re at rehab that day. Go Monday nights temporarily.

Your life does need to get reorganized, temporarily. The sooner you let go of your regular day-to-day structure, the  easier and less stressed you’ll be. And most importantly, you’ll be there, in the moment, doing what needs to be done.

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Easing into Fall

Friday, August 20th, 2010

fall foliage 2009 002 Instead of falling into Fall this year, what would it feel like if we eased into it?

We’re so reluctant to let  go of summertime weather, its different pace and shorter (or no) to do lists, that we hang on as long as we can. Sure, we had times during the summer when we wished for more structure … especially when the kids or grandkids asked “what can I do today?” for what seemed like the nine hundredth time. Our creativity wore out at some point and – dare I write it – we longed for different times.

So we hang on to that summertime feeling. Whatever it was to you, it’s waning. Oh, you’re mad at me now, for even writing that, I know, I know! I can barely admit it’s almost Fall  myself !

You feel it in the air, as you hear about or take  the kids going shopping for school clothes and supplies. You feel it as you drive by cars stuffed with the new college freshman’s world. You remember your school and college years as all this happens.

This all reminds me of returning home after a vacation.

Some people will arrive home and quickly get the house back in order because that’s how they need to transition into real life. (I don’t know what else to call it, though I don’t like the phrase myself!)

Others of us delay doing the vacation laundry as long as we can, perhaps not even unpacking the suitcase as a way to retain that vacation feeling.  Trouble is, the longer we wait, the more real life takes over and eventually we feel out of control.

We still have a toe in the vacation waters and can’t quite let  go. But if we don’t get focused on this moment, the train of life keeps moving and can run us over.

We all transition differently — I’ve given a list of ideas below I hope will be useful to you, so that you ease into Fall more easily this year.

Celebrate the summer in a big way. Have a party and relive your favorite memories. Or simply a special family dinner or barbecue. The conversation focuses on best times of the summer, not what’s coming up. It’s one way to close out the old and get your mind ready for the new.

Change your schedule just a little bit at a time. I know you want to wait as long as you can, but remember what happened last year  when you jolted your body into waking up two hours earlier, or going to bed at such a different time? I’m suggesting 15-30 minutes at a time. Get used to that and then add a little more.  We can usually find 15 minutes if we look carefully enough.

Calendars and lists. If you threw your calendar/list away or simply didn’t need to look at it as often over the summer, inch it back into your view. Literally.

Start looking ahead. After you’ve taken a week or so to eventually welcome that calendar back into your life, start looking ahead. If you know you have a jazz band concert to get kids ready for at the end of September, what has to get done before the concert date arrives? Outfits, lessons, tune up, buying music, rehearsals … all these can  go  onto your calendar. Work backwards from the event date; visualize yourselves there. What led up to that date? What had to happen and by when?

Particularly when you transition from summer to Fall, it’s helpful to write down  more than you’re used to. You’re effectively retraining your brain to hold more stuff than it has over the summer, or at least different stuff.   After awhile, ease up if things go smoothly, but when you first start a habit,  watch it like a hawk. Get solid, then ease up. It’s a faster way to instill a new habit.

Get back to exercise, meditation, or me-time. Sometimes we give it up over the summer because our schedules are more flexible or not as stressful. We feel  like we don’t need it as much. If you let it lapse over the summer, getting back to it as your schedule heats up will feel good  (doing something for yourself, just for you) … and will help you manage life more easily.  If you’re a grandparent sitting for your grandchildren, keep a balance of  “babysitter” time when you play that role, with true “grandparent” time. Set some boundaries for what you need from  your time.

Don’t use “back to school” or “Labor Day weekend” as a deadline for too much. We use events to mark deadlines for projects we’d forgotten about or back-burnered. Now is not the time to paint your den, renovate or undertake other, voluntary, large projects. You already have a lot on your plate,physically and mentally. Why add more complexity, risk and chaos? Even if you thrive on chaos, does everyone else in your household? What you can do is break downthe small steps leading up the painting,  and get this done gradually.

And celebrate Fall. A favorite saying, from Alexander Graham Bell: “When one door closes, we often look so long and regretfully at it that we don’t see the door that opens before us.”  What do you like about Fall, or the return to this schedule? What new opportunities and possibilities are over the horizon do you think? What could you plan for late September, to celebrate Fall and begin looking forward to it?

So what’s one thing you can do, to ease into Fall a little more easily this year?

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Whose Vacation is it Anyway?

Wednesday, July 21st, 2010

Sometimes we get frustrated. We save our money and our time. We spend time traveling to our destination. And at the end of vacation, sometimes we can get frustrated. We waited all year for this time but it wasn’t what we expected. Why not? You may not have realized whose vacation it was … or what YOU really wanted from vacation. Make these questions part of your travel and vacation planning and you’ll be happier.

Key Question #1

Making it around that last corner

Making it around that last corner

Whose interests are you mainly planning the vacation around? It’s important if you’re traveling with friends, parents, or children to answer this question honestly.

For example, if you’re traveling with parents, revisiting places they went in their younger years, it’s really their vacation.

You’re along for the ride and it’s a fascinating one. In my book, they get more votes on where to go. If there are activities you want do but they physically can’t, ask yourself how important those activities are to you, compared to spending time with them. Can you return here another time?

If you’re traveling with friends, agree ahead of time on how often you’ll see each other.

Will you go off on your own during the day and meet up for meals or just at dinner? Will you plan some activities together and be honest with each other when you need time away from each other?

If traveling as families, is it the childrens’ vacation? How can you figure in some time to get out of vacation what you want?

So, ahead of vacation, figure out what you want. Make it known. Ask for what you need on your vacation. More on that below.

With expectations aligned before you leave, your vacation with family/pals is more relaxing. “Oh, right. Remember we said that we would … ” And, it’s easier to let go of less important wants/needs, in favor of what others want/need to do, too. Opens up new opportunities.

Key Question #2: What do You Want from Vacation?

Yes, you. Only you. Forget about everyone else just for a few minutes. Stop & think.

What kind of vacation is this? Is it mainly a do-nothing-much-but-enjoy-sitting-and-reading-on-the-porch read type of vacation?  Is it a go-go-go all day vacation? What’s your primary focus for the destination you’ve chosen.
Scheduled or not? How do you relax?   Are you on a schedule to see the sights? Sleeping in? sleeping in for the mornings? Going out at night or staying in?
What kind of food do you need while you’re on vacation? Are you on a diet or eating certain foods for your health? Love to eat out and don’t get to at home? Ask for what you need.
Exercise: Will you keep it going while you’re on vacation? Will you use the same routine as at home or try something new? Give it up for the vacation? Answer this question before you book your vacation spot.
How connected do you want to be on this vacation? Agree ahead of time whether you’ll take the Blackberry, the phones, or a PC. And if you do, do you have to be available all day, or could you select certain hours when you’ll check in?  Or your phone number’s available to your virtual assistant but only to him/her? That option gives you control instead of allowing in the rest of the world.
Just agree together on what you’ll do, so expectations are clear up front.

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