 |
| Saying farewell to spring with some of this year's tulips at Filoli |
Today's the last official day of spring 2012 (summer starts at 4:09pm Pacific today), and I'm feeling the need to close out the season and start anew by celebrating all the spring cleaning I did this year. I don't know about you, but I was definitely bit by the spring cleaning bug in 2012. It started in my clothing closet. (I'm not a big clothing shopper, but tend to hold on to what I do buy way beyond it's "expiration date".) Despite this, I was able to convince myself to part ways with a few outfits and items I felt no longer represented who am I today. (Though I suspect there may still be some lurking in there that really ought to go!)
 |
| Grouping products by their EWG Skin Deep "hazard" ratings |
Then I found out the hard- "what is that red bumpy rash on my face" way - that I'm sensitive to fragrance in skin care products. This was just the catalyst I needed to use the Environmental Working Group's skin deep web-site to go through all my skin care products one weekend - weeding out those with higher "hazard" ratings - and finding new, low hazard, fragrance free sun, skin and dental care products to use. (Ratings are on a scale of 0-10, lower ratings mean lower hazard).
If you plan on doing a similar review of your products - I recommend budgeting plenty of time for review of current products and research for new. You can manage your time by breaking the project down by the categories you'll find on EWG's website (sun, skin care, eye care, makeup, babies and mom, oral care, nails etc.)
I'd used EWG's skin deep site a few years ago to to find a body lotion and shower soap. What I learned by going back this year is that you have to check their site periodically - maybe once a year - because brands sometimes change the formula of their products which can impact their rating. For example - the body lotion I had chosen a year ago because it was rated a 3 had recently been bumped up to a 5 due to a change in their formula. The nerve!
In case you're interested, I let go of a lot of Clarins products in this year's "product cleanse" - and now use Bubble and Bee's unscented and organic: facial cleanser, facial cream, shower soap, lotion stick and body butter (ratings range from 0-1). Their products are good enough to eat! And a little bit of it goes a long way - so I'll be saving money in the long run - while feeling great about using them. Although it's rated a 4, I'm also using DML-Daily-Facial-Moisturizer-SPF 25 (recommended by my dermatologist) during the day. My skin has never looked or felt better.
 |
| Before |
A month or so after that project, Yoga Niche's three week Spring (nutrition) Cleanse started - bringing with it all the cooking that it entails. A week into the program - I had just about had it with a section of our "pantry" - where as you can see on the left, trying to get to any one product - say sun flower seeds or dried garbanzo beans - meant emptying out the entire shelf. Augh! Why I put up with that torture for so long I really don't know.
 |
| After |
A quick trip to Bed Bath and Beyond for shelf organizers and BPA free containers to act as pull out "drawers" for various sections (grains, nuts, seeds, etc) was all I needed to breathe a sigh of relief and make cooking a far more pleasurable experience than it had been before.
I'm learning that the enjoyment of a meal begins long before it's on your plate - and includes seeing and appreciating all of the wonderful ingredients before they are incorporated into your meal.
The inspiration for my final spring cleaning project was ignited by two things: a flyer from Recology (our waste management company) announcing a free shredding event occurring in three weeks; and a blog post by Irene Leonard, a fellow colleague and business coach, heralding the wonders of the ScanSnap s1500 - a small "bread loaf sized" instant PDF sheet-fed (20plus pages at a time) scanner.
Over the years I've coached a lot of clients. Many of these folks work with me at various points throughout their career - finding jobs, grooming for promotions, transitioning careers/jobs, rising in the ranks of leadership, developing their management skills - you name it. Because of this - I had amassed a huge collection of client folders - spread out in boxes in my office and garage. And like my kitchen shelf - seeing all those files taking up space had been niggling at me for some time.
 |
| Charlie helps with scanning project |
So when I got the flyer, Irene's post on the scansnap immediately came to mind. I knew I didn't want to lose the documents - I just didn't want them in paper form anymore. They had to be digitized before they could be shredded.
The minute that flyer came in - the project was on! I ordered the scanner and debated whether to find someone to do the scanning for me. Time was tight though, so I decided to do it myself - and am glad I did. It was cathartic to "revisit" the coaching work I'd done over the years - all the way back to when I first started my business.
 |
| Files, files, and more files.... |
With little time to get it all done though - I had to keep at it - scanning between client sessions, early mornings, late evenings, and throughout the weekends too.
That scanner is a work horse! Should you decide to get one for your own scanning / paperless office project - I recommend you read the reviews (and tips) on Amazon. I found one that mentioned "inserting the paper gently" of particular help.
 | ||
| Onsite shredding! Thanks Recology. |
By the end of the three weeks though - I was pretty "done" with scanning - both mentally and physically. (While happy to see the piles reducing - the job of scanning itself , when you have so much to scan, can be mind numbing.)
I was happy too to see those files get shredded (I waited to make sure they were) - and to say one final "goodbye" to all that paper - knowing that the info is now safely saved, backed up, and readily available in digital form.
In some ways too - this post is acting as a final "cleanse' of info I felt needed to be expressed so as not to grow "old and stale" in the recesses of my mind. I have lots of other "spring cleaning" projects in the queue - including another run at my clothing closet, cleaning and organizing the garage, using EWG to evaluate and choose better makeup, more scanning and shredding to reach the paperless office of my dreams, more organizing in the kitchen, and introducing you to our four felines on the blog. I'm not sure when I'll get to them all, but it sure feels good to look back on all that's already been accomplished this year, as spring comes to a close, and the summer begins.
What "spring cleaning" did you do this year?
No comments:
Post a Comment