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If You Are Planning on Starting an Exercise Program in the New Year, Read this First!

Posted on by Dawn Link Posted in Exercise, New Year's Resolutions

If You Are Planning on Starting an Exercise Program in the New Year, Read this First!

One of the most common New Year’s resolutions is to start (or re-start) an exercise program. To increase your odds of your success, here are some factors to consider:

Do you feed off the energy of others when you exercise? If so, investigate joining a gym or an exercise class. Community ed (adult ed) and town recreation programs often run inexpensive classes if you do not want to pay for a gym membership that you think you will not use. Also, not all gyms that offer classes are the same. Some have a wide range of class types, for different styles (dance, yoga, Pilates, or weight training) and levels, while others have limited programs. If the gym you are considering advertises classes, ask to see the schedule before signing up.

Are you the type of person who prefers to exercise in private? Then you will not be happy sharing space in a regular gym. Some personal trainers offer private or semi-private sessions in their studios (even at some gyms) or will come to your home.

When looking for a gym to join, stay close to home. If you must travel more than 12 minutes, research shows, you are unlikely to stick with it.

You might be more inclined to stick with an exercise program if you have a friend join you. You will at least be accountable to each other!

If you are looking into joining a gym, visit during the hours you would most likely work out so you can see how crowded it is, who works out at that time (are you comfortable working out around guys who deadlift 400 lb.? teens?), and what the staffing level is then. Does equipment appear to be in good shape, or are there “out of order” signs on machines? Is the equipment you would use available? Also check the facility (including restrooms and locker rooms) for cleanliness.

Most gyms will give you a free pass for a day or a week so you can try it out before signing a contract and paying membership dues. They do not always advertise this, so ask!

After reading this, you are probably considering whether you, yourself, would in fact prefer to work out at home, on your own, or with a personal trainer. If so, check in again for a future blog with suggestions on how to go about doing so.

Good luck with your exercise program, whichever route you choose!

Photo: Pixabay

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Five Ideas for Decorating for the Holidays on a Budget

Posted on by Dawn Link Posted in Budget, Christmas, Crafts, DIY, Finances, Holidays, Home, Shopping

Five Ideas for Decorating for the Holidays on a Budget

With prices for everything on a seemingly endless spiral upward, you might want to go DIY for holiday decorations this year. Even if you are not an artsy-craftsy type, here are five ways to add a festive look for pennies:

  • Candy cane garlands: hang a string or ribbon across the wall from which to hang the candy canes.
  • Gift wrap your door: wrap ribbons (horizontal and vertical) around your front door and add a bow to make it look like a wrapped gift.
  • Painted pinecones: add a dab of white paint and behold, snow on the pinecones! Alternatively, skip the paint and go natural.
  • Christmas card tree: tape string on your wall in the shape of a tree (or go abstract!) and hang your cards from it.
  • Candy jar centerpiece: Fill a candy jar with peppermint candies, pinecones, cranberries (or fake berries), ornaments, or cinnamon sticks.

There are so many creative and cute decorating ideas that are simple and inexpensive. What are a few of yours?

Photo: Pixabay

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A Hand-y Guide to Food Portions

Posted on by Dawn Link Posted in Christmas, Food, Holidays, Kitchen, Thanksgiving, Winter

A Hand-y Guide to Food Portions

We are in the middle of National Eating Season. OK, admittedly, it is not a real thing, but you know what I mean: Halloween, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Kwanza, Christmas, and New Year’s. Those my friends, comprise too many occasions to over-indulge in delicious meals and snacks.

You do not need me to tell you what to eat; by now, you already know what is considered nutritious and what is junk food. However, do you know what is considered a healthy serving size? More to the point, are you really expected to tote measuring cups and measuring spoons to your in-laws on Thanksgiving? Thankfully, we have a couple of fairly accurate measuring devices on our person already: our hands. Indeed, it is true, so here is a “hand-y” (pun intended!) guide to using your hands to give you an approximate of what nutritionists consider to be a serving.

1 Cup = one fist. Use to measure cold cereal, milk, soy milk, whole fruit, or yogurt.

½ Cup = half a fist. Use to measure fruit and vegetables (fresh, frozen, or canned), fruit juice, pasta, legumes, or rice.

¼ Cup = cupped hand. Use to measure dried fruit, nuts, or seeds.

1 teaspoon = tip of your thumb. Use to measure oil, butter, margarine, or mayonnaise.

1 tablespoon = thumb from tip to first (top) joint. Use to measure oil, butter, margarine, or mayonnaise.

Open hand. Use to measure a slice of bread or half a bagel.

3 oz. = palm of hand. Use to measure meat, chicken, or fish.

Two thumbs held side by side, Use to measure cheese, or peanut butter.

Hopefully, making use of these tidbits will enable you to enjoy time spent with friends and family without coming out of this holiday season gaining weight you do not want.

Photo: Pixabay

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How to Prepare your Home and Car for Winter

Posted on by Dawn Link Posted in Car, Fall, Home, Safety, Winter

How to Prepare your Home and Car for Winter

Thanksgiving is over as we now turn our attention to the winter holidays. Have you already prepared your home and car for winter? As we all know at any point a storm may hit our area. Look what just happened in Buffalo, NY! If you live around the Great Lakes, you have already experienced that very same powerful winter storm. Let’s make sure that we are all prepared this year for winter and, heaven forbid, just such a storm.

Take a walk all around your property, making sure that your leaves, loose sticks, and other yard debris have been cleaned up. Leaves left on the ground once frozen with snow piled on top of them can make for a very hazardous situation. You don’t want to slip and fall – or have a visitor or delivery person hurt – because you did not clean up those leaves.

Store your patio furniture. Make sure to clean and dry the cushions as well as hose down the furniture before storing it.

Drain outdoor hoses, disconnecting and storing them in your garage or shed.

Have your heating system checked and cleaned by a professional to make sure that you are warm all winter long.

Turn off your outside water spickets to avoid freezing and potentially bursting pipes.

Install driveway markers to help either you or someone you hire to plow your driveway so that everyone knows where the driveway is. 

Prepare your car for winter by purchasing new windshield wiper blades. Top off your antifreeze, and check your battery and tire pressure on all season tires. Change your oil if it’s time. Depending on the car and where you live, you may need to swap out your tires and install snow tires.

Preparing for winter now will not only save you money but will also provide you peace of mind.

Photo: Pixabay

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A Virtual Organizing Project – Converting a Bedroom Into a Home Office

Posted on by Dawn Link Posted in Bedroom, Computer, DIY, Filing, Home, Office, Paper Management, Virtual Organizing, Working From Home

A Virtual Organizing Project – Converting a Bedroom Into a Home Office

I just finished working with Susan (name changed to protect her identity), who left her job as a lawyer at a large firm to start her own home-based practice in Connecticut. Her project was to convert a guest bedroom into her home office. Our goals were to tackle the arrangement of the furniture, to set up her files (both computer and paper), and to create systems so that she was able to work efficiently in her home.

Working together virtually, we were able to successfully visualize what the room would look like without the bed in it. Her first task was getting rid of all the excess furniture that would not be appropriate for a home office. She hired a few college students to move the furniture around within her house. She had a lovely antique table brought up to her new office space and had a closet company custom build her bookshelves.

Susan has ADHD and does not like to have anything put in drawers or out of sight, fearing she will forget things. Together we worked on creating a file system that she housed in her bookshelves. In that the home office was not only to be used for her business, but she also needed it set up for her personal files. We very clearly separated the two file systems so that it was easy for her to grab what she needed and more importantly, put it all away when she was done.

Equally crucial to her success, we needed to look at her computer and reorganize her files for business and personal. All her files were loose on her desktop, and we needed to create a better naming convention and a file folder system so that Susan knew exactly where to find what she was looking for. By eliminating all the loose files on the desktop, she instantly felt more relaxed by not having all that visual clutter every time she turned on her computer.

Once the overall structure of her office was established, a file index was generated, so it was easy for her to retrieve and file both her business and personal papers without forgetting where they were or what the file name was. A billing system was also set up, and she then hired a paralegal to help her in her practice.

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Virtual Organizing vs. Hands On Organizing

Posted on by Dawn Link Posted in DIY, Hands on Organizing, Virtual Organizing

Virtual Organizing vs. Hands On Organizing

What is the difference between Virtual Organizing and hands on organizing?

Well, I offer both kinds of professional organizing. Some people may ask what the heck virtual organizing even is. Indeed, virtual organizing has been around for at least six or seven years, and – as you can imagine – It exploded with the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 when clients were uncomfortable having people in their homes. Virtual organizing is the same as in person organizing, except technology is used to enable working together. The appointments tend to be shorter, and I can work with anyone regardless of the geographical location. Some people are also more comfortable not having a stranger enter their homes.

Virtually working with a client is successful if the client is highly motivated, great at doing DIY projects, and comfortable with technology and a reliable Internet. It is equally important that the client be physically able to do the work or have someone helping him/her if unable to work alone. The client needs to be goal driven and needs expert advice and guidance. In that virtual organizing tends to be shorter in session length, time and budget restraints allow clients easier access to working with me virtually. Typically, the project is very well defined and remains the only goal being addressed at a given session.

Hands on professional organizing tends to involve longer sessions. There is often a larger scope of work to be done, and the person tends not to always be a DIY individual. He/she appreciates having the extra set of hands to work side-by-side with and to have the expert on site. Perhaps one distinct advantage here is that immediate results can be noticed: a highly motivating force! What’s more, hands on work allows for more flexible projects as the need arises.

All in all, consider what might work best for you in terms of your personality, work habits, and particular job in mind. If you are puzzled, give me a call, and we will work it out in tandem to focus on your individual organizing needs.

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How to Start a Book Group

Posted on by Dawn Link Posted in Books

How to Start a Book Group

Would you like to share your love of reading with others? If you say yes, why not start a book group? Not sure how to do so? Well just follow these steps to begin.

Ask your friends what books they read. If you have similar tastes, that is a great start, or maybe their different tastes will introduce you to authors and genres you have never considered.

Choose a theme for your book group. You can base this on types of books (contemporary fiction, nonfiction) or any other criteria. For example, is the book group an excuse for a social gathering and sharing a bottle of wine (no judgment!) or will you delve into literary criticism that will make your college English literature professors proud?

Set up basic ground rules: Where will you meet (private homes, library, restaurants)? How often, on what schedule (third Thursday of the month)? What are the expectations for food and drink: potluck, BYOB, snacks, a full meal (lunch or dinner)? Will the food served be related to the book in some way? Who chooses the book each time? Are any types of books off-limits?

A good number of members for a book group is 10-12. This allows for a good mix of opinions and participation. Larger groups are more cumbersome to organize, with discussions possibly leaving out some people. Smaller groups are move vulnerable to falling apart, as peoples’ schedules and lives intervene. For example, my friend’s book group has lost 3 members due to out-of-state moves in the past few years, but they invited new members to fill out the group.

Invite your friends and get the ball rolling! You can work out details as you go along. And be sure to have fun!

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Insanely Creative Bookshelves

Posted on by Dawn Link Posted in Books

Insanely Creative Bookshelves

Tired of looking at the same old options for bookshelves? Check out these amazing bookshelves. If you are handy with tools, you can even make some of these yourself!

Interior Design Paradise

Buzzfeed

Bookbub

HomeDCorHub

Have you seen, considered, or even boast a unique bookshelf? Maybe your creative juices will flow after viewing a few of the above examples so that you can now create or design a bookshelf that is not only is functional but also a piece of art.

Photo: Pixabay

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5 Tips for Organizing Your Bookshelves

Posted on by Dawn Link Posted in Books

5 Tips for Organizing Your Bookshelves

October is National Book Month, so our blogs this month will be about (you guessed it!) books.

Below are five tips for organizing your bookshelves so that you can quickly get your hands on any title you own.

  1. First empty your shelves and declutter. Do you have books you will never read again or refer to? Donate them to your local library or other nonprofit organizations that can resell them.
  2. Separate fiction from nonfiction.
  3. Organize fiction alphabetically by author.
  4. Organize nonfiction by category.
  5. Replace books, starting with the bottom shelf, which should be used for heavier, over-sized books.

To keep your bookshelves organized and uncrowded, weed out your collection as you add a new book. Use the “one in, one out” rule to ensure that you are limiting the number of books you are keeping.

Photo: Pixabay

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The Three Most Important Guidelines for Backing Up Your Computer

Posted on by Dawn Link Posted in Backup, Computer, Electronics

The Three Most Important Guidelines for Backing Up Your Computer

If you are like me, your computer holds so much diverse information: client records, home repair notes, favorite recipes, eyeglass prescription, photos, email, and the list of movies I want to see. This pretty much accounts for much of the “stuff “from every aspect of life. What would happen if that data were lost, deleted by accident, corrupted by disk error, attacked by a virus or other malicious software, including held hostage by ransomware? Yes, life would be complicated, that is for sure!

A client had a recent scare when several dozen files got corrupted by a disk issue. What could have been a disaster turned into only a mild inconvenience because all her data were backed up.

Do YOU have a backup plan for your data? Find below three guidelines for setting up such a vital plan.

  1. Backup on a consistent schedule. Can you really afford to lose a day’s worth of data? If not, backup daily or more frequently. MAC users can set up automatic backups using the Time Machine app. If you do not have a consistent schedule, you will go too long between backup or forget altogether.
  2. Backup to multiple devices. What happens if your backup drive is corrupted? Backup frequently to another external hard drive. Time Machine backs up my computer to my main backup drive (a 4T external drive) multiple times a day. Once a week, on a set schedule so I do not forget, I plug in a different external drive and let Time Machine back up to it.
  3. Keep backups in multiple locations. Worst case scenarios: a burglar steals your computer and all your electronics, including your external hard drives. Heaven forbids house damage (fire, roof leak, tornado) affects your computer and backup drives. While it is true that you would have bigger problems than a loss of data, this is one headache that you can prevent. Store a backup at your office (if it’s in a different location than your home), at a trusted friend’s house, or in a safe deposit box. This backup can be updated at greater intervals. I personally do this every three month, because that is the most data loss, I am willing to risk. What is more, I rotate the offsite disk with my secondary backup disk. That is, I backup to my secondary disk and take that to the bank where my safe deposit box is. Then I take the external hard drive out of my safe deposit box and use that as my secondary backup disk for the next three months. Rinse and repeat…

It really is a gamble if you are not backing up your computer. One other precaution is to back up to the cloud. Now you have both a physical backup on your external drive and a cloud-based solution.

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