Garages are used for many things, but rarely do they simply shelter cars. They tend to be stuffed full of stuff that represents unmade decisions. Garages are usually cold in the winter, hot in the summer, dirty, bug and rodent-ridden and just plain nasty. Many of us can’t even fit a car between the boxes of college textbooks, old stereo equipment and the ubiquitous, “Maybe junior will want it when he moves out,” sofa. Where do you start?

As with any organizing project, start in one area at a time. Although I insist on emptying an entire closet when I work with clients, the garage is a different animal; bigger, dirtier and sometimes, it bites. Don’t worry about purchasing containers and shelving in advance; start by purging and sorting.

Create zones for your stuff: painting supplies, cleaning supplies, car supplies, household items, wine cellar, chest freezer, out-of-season clothes, gardening supplies, camping gear, gun safe. Whatever you store needs its own zone. As you sort, put like with like in the zone you’ve designated for those items.

Note: if you have disposable income, just do the overview of the garage and create clear categories. Then delegate the next step of physically moving the items. Have that person dust and wipe down things as they go, unless of course it’s trash and should just be put into a trash pile.

Do you have a paint can collection dating to the ’80s? Find out where you can either recycle your paint or dispose of it properly. If you have new or nearly full cans of paint in colors that you still may need, put them all together. Your painting supplies should be stored near the paint. If your brushes and rollers were not cleaned properly after last use, you will have to toss them. Make a note of what you have and what you need for your next painting project and keep it as a memo in your PDA, computer or in a household maintenance file.

Tools are a common item to find in a garage, and if you have more than a small portable box’s worth of tools I strongly encourage the purchase of a heavy duty tool box with several shallow drawers and on casters. Group like with like: wrenches, screwdrivers, hammers, etc. Keep extension cords rolled up and off the floor — hanging on pegs is my favorite solution for organizing cords, chain and ropes.

Gardening tools may also be stored in the garage. Again, keep them together, and up off of the floor if possible; I like the Rubbermaid racks (www.rubbermaid.com) for rakes, hoes, brooms and such. If you’re not handy with a level and a drill, you’ll need some help to get these racks put up straight and strong.

Car care items, such as Armor All, wax, towels for drying, chamois, etc. should be stored in a plastic bin or two. But most of us delegate car washing, so if you don’t wash your own car, get rid of this stuff.

Don’t store things in super large bins that become too heavy and unmanageable. For women, 30 pounds is about maximum for comfortable lifting.

When you get sections of floor cleared and exposed, take the opportunity to sweep or vacuum. If you see signs of rodents, now’s the time to set a few traps along the perimeter of the space. Again, delegate these tasks if you can.

Last, is your garage storage for Christmas decorations, Halloween costumes, keepsakes and out-of-season clothing? These things need to be especially well packed because they can be ruined so easily by pests, water or mildew. Be sure to use plastic bins with tightly fitting lids, and try to keep to all the same brand, style and color of bins. I’ve been to too many client’s homes where they had a dozen bins and a dozen lids but none of them were a match. Make it easy on yourself and stick to one brand. Sterilite and Rubbermaid (both at Home Depot last time I checked) are my favorites. But watch out — within each brand are many styles, each with their own particular lids.

About that psychic shift: there’s a saying, “You’re only as sick as your secrets,” and I extend that to, “or the messiest space on your property.” When you declutter and deep clean that space, so much room in the brain gets decluttered and cleaned out too. Whether you realized you were thinking about it or not, a weight will be lifted and you will feel freedom, relief and clarity.

Stuff in a garage tends to either be really valuable (tools, vehicles, bicycles, keepsakes) or not at all valuable (mousey couch, moth-eaten sweaters, broken stuff you intended to fix ages ago). When the ruined, unneeded and unwanted stuff moves out, we can finally find and appreciate what’s left and better care for it.

We spend so much of our precious time in our cars that they should be treated like extensions of our homes. A car belongs comfortably parked in the garage and you shouldn’t have to worry about boxes and bins falling onto them or fear of dinging the doors on old furniture that is in the way.

Another thing that happens is that by creating space in the garage you now can relieve some tension in the main house. Stuff can now shift and move because there’s room in the garage for it to land. Which means there will definitely be another layer of garage clearing in your future, but it will be a breeze compared to the first deep clean out.

House in Order/Dream Life Workshops

Client S: a simple technical problem solved saved a lot of space. S had just moved into her new incredible 6,000 square foot custom home but couldn’t figure out why her closet was not working for her. I noticed right away that the large double doors on the walk-in closet opened inward, taking up a lot of valuable space inside the closet. She had her carpenter change the doors to swing outward and we were able to add a cool feature—full-length mirrors on the inside of each door. Another benefit is that now the doors tend to stay closed (because they open into the bedroom) whereas they used to remain open most of the time out of habit.

With the doors out of the way, we were able to design handsome shoe shelves—also built by her cabinet maker—in the space now available behind the doors. She had had an old dresser in the closet that never really worked for her assortment of underthings and accessories (including an incredible jewelry collection), so, since she had the budget, we designed a custom cabinet for these items, including shallow, black-velvet-lined drawers with clear acrylic dividers for her jewelry.

Lastly, to take advantage of vertical space, extra shelves were added above the hanging clothes to store hat boxes and clearly labeled boxes of out-of-season clothes.

I loved feeling like a sorceress, suggesting these valuable improvements, but she would have saved a ton of money and time if she had called me before the builders.

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There are not too many instances in life that require complete silence. Environments that used to command respect (a medieval cathedral, a breathtaking canyon, a dimly lit forest) are now subject to mobile phone conversations, oblivious chit chat, and all sorts of other rude, entitled human noises.

Even when asked to be silent, as in a group meditation, some of us can’t help but express ourselves audibly. Loud sighs, with or without fluttering the lips, heavy ujjayi breathing, excess movement, dropped water bottles and the pings, buzzes and ring tones of devices that somehow didn’t get put into silent mode. What is up with all this noise?

Ego is the culprit. If you’re in a silent meditation meeting, consider the ego when tempted to let the big audible sigh loose or fumble around with your props. What are you avoiding by not maintaining silence and stillness? What is up with feeling the need to make a noise? Why are you not being considerate of your fellow practitioners?

Breathe through the need to move and make noise. Let the feelings make themselves known. Are you impatient with the process? Did someone drag you to the class or space (and you’re feeling resentful)? Do you need acknowledgment in some way? Do you think audible breath means you are chill and comfortable enough with yourself that you can let it all hang out? Examine your motives for disturbing others — you may not even realize this is what you are doing.

We can’t control our environment all that much. People will be disruptive. One day when I was hiking the Camino de Santiago, the famous pilgrimage trail in northern Spain, a group of teens ahead of me carried a boom box and blasted pop music as they walked. I felt forced to hike past them as quickly as possible and run ahead until I could no longer hear it, which was at least a half mile. It was a bummer. I can hardly remember a savasana at the end of a yoga class that was completely silent. And when have you been in a theatre recently where the audience is silent during the previews (or the movie, for that matter)?

What about inhuman sounds? Bird song, bees buzzing, the bark of a distant dog, trucks gearing down on the highway, a police siren, a helicopter propelling overhead on the way to rescue a hiker — these are all things we encounter when meditating outdoors and we can use them as disciplinary tools for the wandering mind. Animal sounds can be pleasant but still it’s important to notice and then let them go. The sounds of vehicles and the neighbor’s lawn mower can also be acknowledged and released. Sit with the agitation these sounds might bring up, and breathe through them.

“Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can,” the old prayer goes. You can control only yourself. When silence is called for, do your part to stay quiet and hold space for your fellows — whether meditators, students and other humans, or nature’s scaled, furred and feathered creatures.

House in Order/Dream Life Workshops

V’s overstuffed social calendar (an organizing challenge for another day) puts her in a constant rush, and her grooming supplies and cosmetics were haphazardly thrown into drawers. Her hair and make-up brushes had never been washed. She was just too busy. Her beautiful, pricey perfume bottles were covered in fingerprints and most had missing tops. She spent a lot of money to get the best make-up and grooming supplies—Chanel, Lancome, etc.—but didn’t take the time to care for them.

Clearly it was a matter of too much stuff. There were 25 black eyeliner pencils alone, a dozen more in plum and about 50 in shades of blue. After emptying out the entire bathroom, we took the time to thoroughly clean the drawers and soak all of the hair and make-up brushes. I had her choose the best of each type of brush and toss the rest. We used gorgeous Chinese lacquer dividers in the drawers and chose only the best and newest of each type of make-up (lipstick, mascara, shadows, foundations, pencils, etc.) and ruthlessly tossed the rest. We polished the perfume bottles and I made her smell each one—she was shocked to find she hated one or two of them!

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How did I get her to throw out all that “good” make-up? By reminding her of the fact that make-up has a very real shelf-life. Bacteria growth is real but invisible and easy to dismiss, but some of the decay was obvious—the pigments were separating from the base in the nail polishes and liquid foundation. V. needed to be realistic about how much make-up she actually used and what colors suited her at this time in her life. She had to review what she had and quit shopping until she truly needed something.

In addition to the expensive cosmetics and hair products, V. hoarded free samples. These she would not throw out. My question to her is, “what are you saving them for?” I put them in a basket and gave her some fun “homework”: she had to pick out at least one of the samples each week and use it up until all of the samples were gone. This way, she would feel pampered and also that she hadn’t “wasted” them by tossing them out.

She also had a gallon Ziplok full of old contact lens cases. There must have been thirty of them. I asked her to choose the three newest-looking ones, and toss the rest.

When we were finished, V. was thrilled with her bathroom “fit for a queen.” What remained in the drawers was clean and beautifully ordered, befitting the dollars represented. She had much more room to store basic bathroom supplies and towels, and she could identify what she was looking for at a glance. The ease of her daily routine from then on would make her feel far richer than all those unneeded cosmetics ever could.

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There’s a point in life when paring back feels increasingly essential. For me, the desire to pare back and simplify, specifically with beauty routines, is a combination of wisdom, exhaustion, economics and disinterest. Pamela Anderson, 59, a bit behind me in years, and Jamie Lee Curtis, five years older at 67, are two paving the way for women to be a different, far more interesting kind of beautiful. I vividly remember Jamie Lee’s let-it-all-hang-out undies photo in Self magazine back in 2002—that was shocking and inspiring. It’s taken a while for the world to catch up to her.

Women spend beaucoup time in salons, doctor’s offices and beauty supply stores not to mention the time so many of us waste on the agony of the scale and the dread of swimsuit season. Productivity-wise, this puts us at such a disadvantage vis-à-vis men. Investment-wise it’s a bear. Soul-wise it can be crushing. At a certain age the hours, along with the energy and money shelled out trying to maintain our looks doesn’t feel well-spent.

Some summer nights I slip my tired, lizard-skinned body into bed and imagine a fairy god-stylist. She would dip me in a vat of olive oil, give me a haircut, a pedicure and a manicure, and clue me in to just which parts of a beauty routine would give me the biggest bang for my bucks and minutes. Alas, I have to figure it out for myself. Here’s the things that, when I do them consistently, really work. I also list a few things I think that now, at age 62, aren’t worth the effort.

Smile: I’m lucky to have never had a cavity, so a cleaning a couple of times a year is all I have to sit through. I believe in bleaching and it’s easier and cheaper than ever. Brushing with a Sonicare toothbrush has been effective. Flossing has to be non-negotiable. If I skip even a couple of days, I notice gum recession and get scolded by the dentist. Even if your teeth aren’t terrific by American standards, a smile is transformative. It’s so cool that white veneer Fembot perfection (cha-ching!) is out and natural, even quirky, grins (Audrey, Sofia, Kirsten Dunst) are in.

Make-up: The older I get, the worse I look with make-up. Watery eyes smear my mascara. Eye shadow looks tragic over wrinkled lids. Foundation—even the super expensive stuff—settles into pores and crevices. The other day I looked in a mirror and was appalled by the cakey mess that was my make-up. I dipped a napkin in my coffee and scrubbed it all off in the cafe bathroom. No make-up at all was 100% better. The thing I’m keeping is lipstick (see smile, above). Check out Pamela Anderson’s first foray into the spotlight without make-up at the September 2023 Vivienne Westwood show. Fresh and free.

Big-time Magnification Mirror, preferably lighted: The reason I hadn’t realized how bad my make-up looked that day was the aging lady combo of poor eyesight and poor lighting. I hadn’t bothered to check myself in my lighted magnifying mirror that morning. Use one to check the eyes for morning crustiness, the chin for errant hairs to be plucked, the teeth for spinach and other disasters so that we don’t scare the young folk.

Working out: The skin might be crepey and loose, but if the muscles underneath are strong and firm, at least there is some scaffolding to hold it up for a while. That said, it’s not necessary to spend hours at a gym—or even buy a gym membership. Consistency using body weight (push-ups, crunches, planks), uphill walks and simple weights or kettlebells at home can give incredible results with only a couple of hours a week.

Nails: I did the gel thing for years. Time plus money plus horribly thin and unhealthy nails. Now I keep them super short and unpolished. I think it looks better not to draw attention with colored polish to my hands, which at this point look like a 90-year old potato farmer’s. The toes, though, are another story. I pedicure and polish my own but with the poor eyesight, I have to contort myself to get my foot close enough to my face to deal with my cuticles. I’ll have to resort to pro pedicures fairly soon.

Sunscreen: If you are young and reading this please don’t make the mistake I did and skip the sunscreen. An ounce of prevention is worth thousands of dollars of laser resurfacing (which in my experience is not effective, see below).

Hair: This one is controversial because I have so many friends who are in the hair biz. I love salon results but I loathe salon time. That’s why pulled back hair is my jam. Occasionally I’ll throw some dye on it. I’ve never had good hair, so I’m not too attached to it, but a lot of readers will view professional haircuts and color as non-negotiable. It’s a fight I’ve given up on. Favorite brush for drying is the Oliva Garden large-ish round. The Wow powder is amazing for touching up roots between dye sessions.

Essentials in Photo: hair dryer with retractable cord is a favorite. No messy cord in the drawer. Plain black hair bands, Good barrettes. The Wavey comb has a cool look, is sturdy and made from ocean clean-up plastic. It comes in a slim recyclable cardboard sleeve. I’m giving these to everyone this Christmas. Bed Head Manipulator is the best thing for keeping fly-aways down that I’ve found. Also, when I did have a cute collarbone length cut, it kept the ends perky and flipped.

Diet: A healthy meal plan doesn’t have to take any extra time and energy, you just redirect it. Take all that energy spent with weight struggles or eating between three squares and spend it on chopping vegetables and preparing fresh meals. Take all that money spent in restaurants and on processed foods and the expensive coffee calorie bombs and spend it on organic whole foods. That line from the Bible, “Let food be thy medicine,” is one of the soundest pieces of advice in there. Teeth, skin, body, mood, energy—everything—is better when the diet is balanced.

Botox and stuff: Botox is my #1 favorite medical spa offering. It’s quick and effective, but it is expensive. Lisa at Duncan Dermatology in St Helena (California) even did something with botox on my jawline called a Nefertiti, and it seems to have lifted some sag in that area—so great!

I also have gotten tremendous results from Intense Pulsed Light (IPL) laser therapy for facial redness. As a kid I was called Rudolph because my nose was so red in the winter. IPL really helps with that. Fairly quick, but fairly expensive.

I bought a red light mask about a year ago and use it about four times a week and I see a difference in my skin texture. The cost was the same as one IPL treatment, so over the year it has paid for itself many times over (the results aren’t a strong per single treatment as the professional IPL, but they accumulate and the 12 minute time requirement, is negligible).

Laser hair removal in my 30s has saved me countless hours shaving my legs and underarms, not to mention all the time I don’t spend staunching bleeding from razor cuts. I’ve tried so many other medical spa treatments and most things, like skin resurfacing lasers, were a complete waste of money, time and pain.

Moisturizing: I had a friend in high school who scoffed at moisturizers because the first ingredient is usually water. Results are super temporary, but better than the alternative. In New York City I rang the filthy bell of a Chinese foot massage hole in the wall in the Meat Packing District and opted in for a full body massage and the masseuse covered me in Vaseline. Too tired to balk at the potential toxicity after a day of 11 miles walking on Manhattan cement, I just went with it. My skin looked amazing for days. So I put yummy smelling Jason oil on my hands and then slather on Vaseline and cover with white cotton gloves I buy by the dozens and toss after a week or so of use. It seems to turn back time so that my hands look more like late-50s than early 90s for 24 hours.

What parts of your beauty routine are essential and which have you let go?

House In Order/ Dream Life Workshops

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Working side by side with a professional organizer is fantastic but might not fit into your budget. A good old paper book on organizing that you can dog-ear and make notes in can be a huge help. I’ve read scores and the following five have stood the test of time. Published between 1998 and 2006, I still refer to them. If you are looking for motivation along with clear how-tos, one of these might work for you. (And in terms of budget, I just saw Kingston’s book on Amazon for $4.98, which seems tragically cheap for something so full of value. )

“Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui,” by Karen Kingston (1999)

Feng Shui is an ancient Chinese art of balancing the energy (chi) and elements of a space. When it became trendy in the West in the 1990s, I was highly skeptical, but I kept noticing this little book for sale when I stood on line at Jamba Juice waiting for my Protein Berry smoothie and one day I finally bought it. It has become it is my all-time favorite organizing book.

Kingston spells out why clutter is so draining — it represents “stuck” energy. She gives the reader insight into how and why we get stuck and direction on how to identify and clear clutter and maintain a clutter-free home. She explains basic feng shui principles and why they make sense. This is a wonderful read for those ready to bring consciousness and energy to every corner of the home — including under the kitchen sink. You can’t hide from the chi!

“It’s All Too Much,” by Peter Walsh (2006)

Walsh is the Australian psychologist-organizer from the tv show Clean Sweep that ran on TNT way back when and he appeared a few times on Oprah’s day time show, which got him notoriety in America. Walsh digs into the psychology of Stuff (capital S) and how to make letting go of clutter less painful. This book is for you sentimental types. If nostalgia keeps you from tossing Grandma’s moldy table linens that have been in the attic for 12 years, this is the book for you. Also good for those of us who have stored our “thin” clothes from high school in the garage, hoping to fit back into them some day. Whether you will or won’t fit them, they’re out of style so take a last look to make sure there aren’t any sellable vintage gems and move them along.

“Organizing from the Inside Out,” by Julie Morgenstern (1998)

A classic. I took classes on organizing as a profession from Julie in New York City and it was some of the best money I’ve ever spent. All of her books are excellent, but this one is essential for understanding how your personal way of thinking, your personal circumstances and your personal values need to be identified in order to implement organization that lasts.

“Getting Things Done,” by David Allen (2001)

GTD, as Allen calls his method, is mainly for the office and paper management, but it also delves deeply into what causes procrastination and project roadblocks. I took my first seminar with David Allen in 1998 and it was life changing. I continued to take his seminars whenever I could while he was leading them and always learned new tricks to better organization and time management. But the book spells it out so clearly that if you read it and follow the suggestions you will save thousands of dollars (and hours) on seminars.

“It’s Hard to Make a Difference When You Can’t Find Your Keys,” by Marilyn Paul (2002)

Paul’s book is for those who can’t find their way through the clutter to accomplish what they’d like to in life on a material and/or metaphysical level. Her focus is on identifying one’s purpose behind getting organized and visualizing success. This book is more spiritual and for fine tuning—start with David Allen or Julie Morgenstern if you want more nuts and bolts practicality.

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Words, words, words.

And a few pictures…

I’ve been writing professionally since 1988, first for wine magazines and wine brands around the world, then on organizing and productivity, including a column in the Napa Valley Register for the past 18 years. Simultaneously I’ve explored yoga, travel, meditation, recovery, dream interpretation, literature, health and fitness, fashion and art and get such a high from weaving it all together. I’m sure I’m just a drop in the ocean wave that is this holistic trend of integrating everything in life for maximum joy and fulfillment, and if I’m echoing and repeating what others are saying, oh well! One of the hard things I’ve learned on my journey is that there is no shame in being part of the herd. That lead dog stuff is passé.

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Near the summit of Fuji-san, 2am, after a lightening storm. Dreamed it, did it.

If you dream it, you can do it.

Let’s get dreaming, decluttering, visioning, learning, seeking, and making it happen. Never hesitate to contact me for coaching on specific organizing and productivity issues so you can keep moving forward or at least make the most of your gestation and transition times; these can be some of the most meaningful lessons. Sometimes we need the tapas—the heat or challenge—to learn something to the bone.