When I look back over the past 4 months of 2022 I really have trouble remembering life before the Marshall Fire, an event that occurred on December 30, 2021 and forever changed the literal and figurative landscape of my beloved community a few miles outside of Boulder. Then again, I am having trouble remembering life before COVID and a political climate that is frightening, to say the least, but I'm trying to remain as positive as possible for a brighter future for us all. Wi

It has been just over 3 weeks since the most devastating fire in Colorado history. It was immediately referred to as the Marshall Fire because of the name of the road right outside of Boulder where the flames first ignited and spread rapidly across over 6000 acres due to 110 mph winds that were whipping across the Front Range on December 30th, 2021. It destroyed approximately 1000 homes and displaced close to 40,000 residents in a matter of hours. It created horrific toxic sm

While November doesn't officially start until tomorrow, #scorpioseason began last week and therefore I began my November birthday season mode. And I'm not only celebrating my actual birthday, November 7th but also what I consider to be the re- "birth day" for It's Just Stuff. It was exactly one year ago on November 1st that I made the decision to go back to an "all in" mindset with this business after losing a W2 job a few weeks before (no fault of my own...just one of those

As Joni Mitchell sang long ago, we can never stop the seasons from going round and round because we are truly captive on a carousel of time pretty much throughout our lives. And we definitely cannot return to the past. I mean we can through our memories, but physically we have no choice but to keep moving forward day by day with the ability to, of course, look behind from where we came in the circle game we call life until the day we die. Last May I was hired to help declutte

In case you have never really thought about the origins of Labor Day it is obviously a day off from "laboring" but we have the labor movement of the 19th Century to thank for this last hurrah for the end of the summer holiday. To say I have been "laboring" a lot since the first holiday of the summer, Memorial Day, is really an understatement. And that's coming from someone who thrives on productivity and can work 7 days a week indefinitely if required...or maybe it's more abo

Welcome to It's Just Stuff's #whatsonyourmindwednesday guest blogs. On the first Wednesday of every month #TeamIJS invites one of our Preferred Partners to share what is on their minds as it relates to the services they provide and the connection to helping anyone struggling with organizing and executive functioning skills as well as complementing our monthly theme. This month, however, we decided that the #WOYMW blog needed to embrace our theme for July, Go Green in a slight

Welcome to It's Just Stuff's #whatsonyourmindwednesday guest blogs. Every week #TeamIJS is inviting one of our Preferred Partners to share what is on their minds as it relates to the services they provide and the connection to helping anyone struggling with organizing and executive functioning skills. This week we invited once again our friends at Call Emmy , an on-demand service for busy moms and families, to share their Guide for Planning Your Next Move in keeping with our

Welcome to It's Just Stuff's #whatsonyourmindwednesday guest blogs. Every week #TeamIJS is inviting one of our Preferred Partners to share what is on their minds as it relates to the services they provide and the connection to helping anyone struggling with organizing and executive functioning skills. This week we invited Gabe Bodner of Fairway Mortgage to share his view on retirement and the latest information about home equity conversion mortgages as part of our "Moving On"

Every Wednesday for the past several months I have invited one of our many It's Just Stuff partners to write a blog about what is on their mind as it relates to the services we provide, but this Wednesday I am "hijacking" the blog to share some incredible stories that we collected during May from dozens of people that entered our Mental Health Awareness Month Giveaway and announce all of the winners of the various prizes including the Grand Prize, a decluttering and home orga

For the past several days I have been at the beach house my brother and sister-in-law are renting in Ventura County. I actually came to California at the beginning of the week and spent the first few days in LA so I could see my daughter who is also here, partially for work but also to see several of her friends she hasn't seen in a very long time. She lives in Brooklyn and works in the film industry so she had planned this trip a few months ago once she knew she would be ful

Welcome to It's Just Stuff's #whatsonyourmindwednesday guest blogs. Every week #TeamIJS is inviting one of our Preferred Partners to share what is on their minds as it relates to the services they provide and the connection to helping anyone struggling with organizing and executive functioning skills. This week we invited Brook Borup, Founder and Queen of Productivity at My Clone Solution to share her greatest tips and tricks for turning your ideas into reality, Our COCTC aka

Welcome to It's Just Stuff's #whatsonyourmindwednesday guest blogs. Every week #TeamIJS is inviting one of our Preferred Partners to share what is on their minds as it relates to the services they provide and the connection to helping anyone struggling with organizing and executive functioning skills. This week we are so happy to introduce Dr. Noah Goldstein, acupuncture and Chinese medicine specialist. Our COCTC aka Chief of Chaos to Calm has been a patient of Noah's for the

As a professional organizer I see a lot of degrees of clutter and chaos, but it is always the back stories of how people have gotten to where they are that can be the most challenging part to actually get a particular client to the point of a much more organized and calm existence. Such was the case with a large project that #TeamIJS worked on this past week. I was contacted by the sister of a woman who has Down's Syndrome looking to get the home she is living in with a careg

Welcome to It's Just Stuff's #whatsonyourmindwednesday guest blogs. Every week #TeamIJSis inviting one of our Preferred Partners to share what is on their minds as it relates to the services they provide and the connection to helping anyone struggling with organizing and executive functioning skills. This week, however, I am "taking over" the blog to make a very special announcement that ties into It's Just Stuff's commitment to promoting Mental Health Awareness Month. I hope

This past week was a tough one for me...emotionally and physically. Emotionally because I was thinking about the fact that tomorrow, May 10th, will be 16 years since my mother passed away and it changed the way I celebrate/honor Mother's Day ever since. Most importantly, I vowed to always be with my kids for every Mother's Day no matter where we all were in the world This year, though, will be the third year in a row that hasn't happened. In 2019, I was willing to let it slid

Welcome to It's Just Stuff's #whatsonyourmindwednesday guest blogs. Every week #TeamIJS is inviting one of our Preferred Partners to share what is on their minds as it relates to the services they provide and the connection to helping anyone struggling with organizing and executive functioning skills. This week we invited Mitten Lowe of Journey To Wellness to write the first guest blog for Mental Health Awareness Month. She provides a very holistic approach to both mental and

In case you aren't aware May is Mental Health Awareness Month. And while I have advocated for many years about what I think is a severely undertreated and ignored epidemic in the U.S., I am taking this virtual soapbox of my own creation and will continue to virtually stand on top of it to shout as loud as I possibly can until change finally happens. I've written far too many social media posts and blogs on this topic due to the ever-rising number of people truly suffering fro

Welcome to It's Just Stuff's #whatsonyourmindwednesday guest blogs. Every week #TeamIJS is inviting one of our Preferred Partners to share what is on their minds as it relates to the services they provide and the connection to helping anyone struggling with organizing and executive functioning skills. This week we invited SurroundUs to share some incredible tips to get your paper files digitized and digital files more organized. SurroundUs is located in the Greater Boulder ar

Welcome to It's Just Stuff's #whatsonyourmindwednesday guest blogs. Every week #TeamIJS is inviting one of our Preferred Partners to share what is on their minds as it relates to the services they provide and the connection to helping anyone struggling with organizing and executive functioning skills. This week we invited a local Realtor partner, Adam Sloat, the Broker/Owner at Westwater Realty to share his wealth of knowledge and experience about preparing to sell your home.

Last night I went to my first live music event since the week before COVID lockdown at the beginning of the pandemic over a year ago when the prospect of a mass vaccine rollout less than a year later seemed like a very long shot...pun intended. Last night, though, proved that when our country can actually work together and allow science...and, yes, compassion for one another to prevail...we were able to once again enjoy, and, more importantly, embrace what was a beautiful eve