Carlomagno - Live more, want less: 52 ways to find order in your life

LIVE
MORE

WANT
LESS

52 WAYS TO FIND ORDER IN YOUR LIFE

MARY CARLOMAGNO

The mission of Storey Publishing is to serve our customers by
publishing practical information that encourages
personal independence in harmony with the environment.

Edited by Deborah Balmuth and Dale Evva Gelfand
Art direction and cover design by Dan O. Williams
Book design by Nathan Padavick
Illustrations by Nathan Padavick

2010 by Mary Carlomagno

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages or reproduce illustrations in a review with appropriate credits; nor may any part of this book be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or other without written permission from the publisher.

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Storey Publishing
210 MASS MoCA Way
North Adams, MA 01247
www.storey.com

Printed in the United States by Versa Press
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Carlomagno, Mary.

Live more, want less / by Mary Carlomagno.

p. cm.

Includes index.
ISBN 978-1-60342-558-2 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Storage in the home. 2. Organization. 3. Orderliness.
4. Decision making. I. Title.

TX309.C367 2011
648.8dc22

2010029330

FOR MATTY,
MY LITTLE SAINT IN THE CITY

I would like to thank the Storey family
for making room for this city girls ideas
among all their great country wisdom.
Special thanks to Pam Art for her patience
and commitment, to Deborah Balmuth
for her keen observation skills and vision,
to Dale Evva Gelfand for her eagle-eye
editing, to Dan Reynolds for his endless
enthusiasm, and especially to my longtime
friend and colleague Amy Greeman, who
made this book happen.

IS YOUR LIFE out of order? Are your wants and desires getting in the way of happiness? Would you like to get your life in order and find the freedom to live more fully? What, exactly, does getting your life in order mean? Order is not a one-size-fits-all proposition; rather, its a personalized journey where you write the itinerary.

Perhaps you feel that your life is leading you rather than the other way around. Or maybe you reach the end of the day feeling overwhelmed and exhausted instead of fulfilled and contented. Perhaps you are yearning for a deeper understanding of life and have trouble pinpointing exactly where to begin. Even with all our modern conveniences, where technology is at our fingertips and material possessions abound, this quest can seem elusive. But it does not have to be. Just as you customize your iPod or Google job search, you can customize how order takes shape in your life, which begins with stripping away the nonessentials. Call it blank slating: setting the foundation for change, creativity, and even enlightenment.

Some of you may view getting organized, time management, or other such buzzwords as restrictive, impossible-to-manage systems that force an unnatural change but the opposite is true. When you release, simplify, and clear distractions, you open yourself up to an entirely new kind of freedom, movement, and discovery. This way of thinking is contrary to what most people believe about organizing or clutter clearing, and its the reason that I was motivated to start a company to answer this need: order. It represents a new starting point, one that begins with asking if you really need and use the things you have. After all, anything can be contained, boxed, or stored; just visit the Container Store or Target to see a whole host of beautiful options.

But that is secondary. The first decision is choosing lightness over heaviness; opting to subtract, not add; and finally making choices that free you of distractions so that you can find more meaning in life. This is the basis of my company and the basis of this book, a set of lessons and practices that inform your journey to finding order. And while this plan is structured on a year of lessons one WAY per week you can pick it up at any point and pull out what is meaningful for you right now. The 52 WAYs are designed for you to re-experience, revisit, and restart each year.

Grouped by true-life examples either from a client or a personal story and then summarized in an overarching theme, each WAY is followed by Daily Practices that provide practical actions ones you can follow every day of the year if you choose. This step-by-step blueprint coaxes subtle shifts in the way you view your things, your relationships, your work, and your passions. It is my belief that these daily practices or rituals inform how we live and, in turn, how we transform, evolve, and grow. They will provide you with the tools you need to make a change one that contrary to popular belief does not happen overnight. At least it didnt for me.

By nature, I am extremely organized. I have an innate ability to know where things go. I enjoy rearranging closets, straightening out spice racks, cleaning up kids clutter, and updating filing systems. People call me to organize their spaces and, consequently, their lives. They pay me to tell them what to do with their stuff. But what I really do is force people to make decisions that they cannot make on their own. This instinctively comes easy to me. I know where the picnic basket is supposed to go, I can tell why you dont have time to write that novel, and I can see why your credit card bills are too high. I just know; I always have. Organizing projects were plentiful in my family, in which I am the youngest child and only daughter, so organizing has always been a part of my life. My father was a Depression-era saver, my mother is a skilled shopper, and my brother is best known for buying and returning just about everything that Bed Bath & Beyond offers. Organizing is in my blood, so this career comes naturally.

I began organizing professionally seven years ago when shopping another one of my innate abilities spiraled out of control. Shopping became more than just a pastime; it was taking up all of my time and most of my money. But my skill at finding the latest trends at bargain prices coupled with my uncanny ability to organize gave me a unique perspective. I ran my home like a good retail store, rotating seasonal merchandise in and out. Once I was done with an item, I donated it, consigned it, or sold it on eBay to free up prime real estate in my closets. (This is still my SOP.) My sorting skills were being honed by virtue of my lifestyle. Who would have thought that all those years of shopping and lunching with my mother would be put to such good use? Shopping converged with organizing to create a career where now I help others. There is comfort in saying to my clients, I have been there. And by there I mean Bloomingdales!