Feng Shui works! What I’ve learned getting my home ready to sell…

It may be a down market, but many people have come through my house in the first few days.  Two couples are already preparing offers.
The house, like a standard poodle at Westminster,  shows well. A lot of it has to do with feng shui– I’ve feng shui’d the heck out of the place and visitors [...]

Plenitude: its dark underbelly

Plenitude: abundance, copiousness; the condition of being full, complete. From Latin: plenus = full.
Whenever you’re feeling cranky, mingy and stingy, like you just don’t have ENOUGH (enough whatever – money, love, time), the pop psychology wisdom is to open your heart to the gifts you already have and to feel gratitude for the bounty in [...]

Home is where my heart is

While I love getting away, seeing new sights, meeting new people, I am firmly anchored at home. Home is where my heart is. Home is where I center and rejuvenate myself.
Since my ex and I separated seven years ago, my home has been a 3,000 square foot house on a one-third acre lot framed [...]

Paperholics Anonymous

Hi, My name is Joy and I am a Paperholic.
I’m grateful to be here with you today at Paperholics Anonymous. I don’t know where else I can turn.
My addiction began innocently enough. I was in college, writing an essay on feminist thought in early Ibsen. I had notes on index cards, notes on scrap [...]

Piles of possessions: George Carlin on “Stuff”

Inspire yourself to clear clutter with a comedy act from the late great George Carlin. Watch his routine on “Stuff” and see yourself reflected.
I love this line:”A house is just a cover for your piles of stuff !”

P-Touch Power!

David Allen, the productivity guru and author of the perennial best-seller, Getting Things Done, recommends that followers of his organizing principles get themselves a little device known as the P-Touch labeler. It’s a hand-held battery-operated gizmo with a miniature QWERTYUIOP keyboard that produces crisp black letters on white sticky tape and can be used for [...]

Purging excess possessions: 3 easy steps

Why would you want to purge your excess possessions? Let me count the ways…
No, actually I’m not going to enumerate them right now; it’s too depressing. I’ll just say that we Americans have a serious Possessions Problem, and it’s choking our ch’i.
So if you’re looking around your place feeling stuck, stagnant, stale and stupefied, consider [...]

Perils of pontificating – feng shui edition

I’m scheduled to give another talk on feng shui this week.
I love these assignments because as I review my feng shui books and notebooks for fresh ideas I quickly realize that my own house has once again fallen out of order. If I’m going to pontificate about creating positive energy with feng shui, keeping the [...]

Pimping my practice (of feng shui)

In late May I wrote an article about feng shui for the local newspaper which they liked so much they asked if I’d write one a month for their home & garden section.  This was great news because that first piece drove a really big turnout for my class at a home furnishings boutique in [...]

Packrat predilections

Packrat: a small rodent (genus Neotoma) that collects in its nest a great variety of small objects. An eccentric collector of miscellaneous objects.
Predilection: a preference, often formed as the result of personal disposition rather than from objective knowledge.
I’m working on an article for the local paper on clearing clutter, and as always when I have [...]