Posts tagged: shopping
It’s hard to ask for help, especially if it’s something that you feel you should be able to do on your own. ”Why can’t I do this?” you ask yourself. “Everybody else can. What’s wrong with me?”
This feeling often prevents individuals from contacting a Professional Organizer, even when clutter is bringing down the quality of their lives. So I’d like to share with you my experience with two professionals that I hired to do something that “everyone else” can seemingly do on their own.
My mother called me the other day to tell me that she had 750 Q-tips and was hoping I would agree to take some of them off her hands.
Here’s how it happened. My mother noticed that the package of 300 Q-tips that she purchased at Walgreen’s quite a number of years ago was almost empty. However, she was determined to buy a smaller package, since she and my dad use them up so slowly, and, like most of us in New York City, have limited storage space.
She went to Walgreen’s and saw a package of 500. Too big! At CVS, she found a package in the cosmetics area — 100 Q-tips for $ 2.49. Perfect!
But they had Q-tips over in the skin care aisle as well, and there she found the package of 750 Q-tips. (It was supposed to be a package of 500 but was marked “Get 50% more at the same price!”) The price for this bounty? $ 3.49.
I’m breathing a big sigh of relief, because for the first time in months, I’m not packing.
We spent the first two weeks of July on a family safari in Africa. Then, a few days after we got back, we drove our 13-year old daughter – and her luggage – to camp for a six-week stay.
In the weeks before I go on a trip, people always ask me, “Are you packed yet?” They assume that, because I am an organizer, I pack my bags well in advance.
The truth is that I don’t pack my bags until the night before I leave.
Sharon Lowenheim, MBA, MSE, Certified Professional Organizer®, spent 25 years working for three of the world’s largest corporations. She graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics and did her graduate work at the University of Pennsylvania, where she earned a Masters degree in Computer Science as well as an MBA from the Wharton School. Since founding Organizing Goddess, Inc., in 2006, she has taught organizing skills to accountants, business coaches, designers, doctors, entrepreneurs, financial advisors, health & fitness professionals, homemakers, insurance agents, lawyers, retirees, salespeople, social workers, students, writers, teachers, tour guides, and others.
