I came across this quote about clearing clutter on – of all places – a medical website, and it struck me as the perfect way to look at the “too much stuff” conundrum I’m still struggling with.

Peter Walsh, an organizational expert and former host of The Learning Channel’s Clean Sweep show, said about the deleterious effects of having too much clutter in your home: “If you have so much stuff it drags you into the past or pulls you into the future, you can’t live in the present.”

Past and Future: A Great Way to Think About Clearing Clutter

That’s a great way to analyze your clutter, as far as I’m concerned. It allows for having a variety of possessions, for one thing. It’s not advice about how to strip your belongings down to only the essentials. Instead it concentrates on the draggy effect of being surrounded by too many things that remind you of times gone by or tasks that you haven’t done.

This way of looking at clutter is new for me, and I like it. The wildly popular piece of advice, often quoted to me from that mega-selling “Magic of Tidying Up” book, about holding each of my possessions in my hand and seeing if it brings me joy, just doesn’t do it for me.

First, I don’t have enough time on this earth to touch each individual item that I own, one by one, and commune with it to determine its joy value. Does this include each pen in my drawer? Each greeting card in my stash? Each pair of earrings? Each measuring cup? Ugh.

Second, there are many possessions I own that I already know do not bring me joy – or that in fact bring me sadness – but I wouldn’t part with them for anything in the world. Things that were my mother’s. The leaning-to-the-side vase that my son made for me a zillion years ago. Pictures of my wedding the first time I was married. They’re important to me. They’re sentimental. I’m keeping them.

And I’m not a hoarder, by the way, in case you’re wondering. But I do have too much stuff that’s dragging me down. And now I have a different way of setting my mind to tackling it.

On the Hunt For “To Do” Items That Pull Me into the Past or Future

Now I’m on a quest to survey my home for all the “to do” items – and often stacks of items – that are placed around my home. I admit there are a lot of them. They are indeed a source of bad feelings. I’m ready to concentrate on just those things about which I’ve said, maybe a thousand times, “I’m going to [sort, do, read, file] that.”

It might be organizing piles of books, many of which I know I don’t really need to keep. It might be needlepoint that I meant to do for my children that now I plan to do in preparation for grandchildren. It might be photographs I intend to sort meticulously, labeling each by date and event.

Clearing Clutter Doesn’t Necessarily Mean Throwing Away

I can face these things that make me feel bad with a different intention now – to bring them into the present, or banish them from my daily living situation. For that collection of books, I’m going to tackle them with a couple of bags, with the goal of filling those bags with the books I can admit I don’t need to keep. Off to the Friends of the Library they’ll go. Then I’ll organize the rest of them. A bit of banishment, plus a bit of moving items from “I’ve got to do something with those” into an organized part of my present-day life.

The handicraft projects I’ll either give away or store with my gifts stash. (I always have a stash of things I buy for loved ones whenever I find things I know they’ll like; I hold them until the next birthday or holiday.) That way I don’t feel that I need to complete those projects now. I’ll complete each of them when the time is right for giving them as gifts. They’ll move from “I have to finish those projects” to “Gifts ready for giving.” When an event arises for one of those needlepoint projects, I’ll be motivated to complete one.

The photos I’m putting into boxes by era based on my life and my children’s lives, and I’m not going to sort them down into exact sequence or dates as I had planned to do. I don’t need to create the Library of Congress here; I just need to organize an easy-to-navigate collection of photos that I can enjoy when I want to look at them, and that my children can look through whenever the mood strikes them. They don’t need to find “First Day of School 1991” or “Christmas 1987” or “Halloween 1993.” I think “Kids’ Baby Years” or “Kids’ Middle School Years” will suffice. That I can get done.

It’s Not Really About the Stuff, It’s About the Demands You Place on Yourself

Conquering too much stuff is about letting go a little, being more reasonable about what can be accomplished in a reasonable amount of time and lowering the sometimes-ridiculous standards you’ve set for yourself.

I like this new way of tackling clutter. It will bring me one step closer to the feeling of freedom and possibilities that I long for – the idea that, Hey, if I wanted to pack up and move one day, that would not be an insurmountable task. And freedom and possibilities are what life is about, right?

Have you thought about clearing the clutter in your house this year? Do you have more than a few items in your house that make you feel that you haven’t accomplished what you’re supposed to? Do you ever think about how clutter might be restricting your choices in life? Please join the conversation.

Cynthia Bailey’s Leopard Jumpsuit with Nene

Real Housewives of Atlanta Season 12 Episode 20 Fashion

Back in Atlanta on the heels of some Grecian drama Cynthia Bailey paid Nene Leakes’ a visit at Swagg to make sure everything was cool after her walk off on the final evening.  As it ends up, both women were wearing leopard which was perfect because Cynthia was asked to reenact the impersonation of Nene she was going to do in Greece but didn’t get a chance to. Thankfully it went over well and everything seems calm between those two for the moment. Unfortunately for us, we won’t get a chance to see what results if we reenact Cynthia wearing this jumpsuit because it’s totally sold out.

The Realest Housewife,

Big Blonde Hair

Hot Miami Styles Leopard Jumpsuit Sold Out

Originally posted at: Cynthia Bailey’s Leopard Jumpsuit

For decades, boomers
have been exposed to a myriad of changes, both small and big; global and
personal; shocking and gentle; and through it all, you’re still here by the
grace of either good genes, mindful health practices, or just plain luck.

My favorite song
from Stephen Sondheim’s Follies is
called “I’m Still Here.” The lyrics make me smile and bring me comfort, because
it is a song of resilience and hope:

Good times and bad times
I’ve seen them all
And my dear, I’m still here
Plush velvet sometimes
Sometimes just pretzels and beer
But I’m here

Oh, I’ve stuffed the dailies in my shoes
Strummed ukuleles, I’ve sung the blues
Seen all my dreams disappear
But I’m here

Enter the
Coronavirus

Not long ago, you
woke up to something called the coronavirus.
As you watched the virus spread quickly from China to the U.S., it became
crucial to manage your physical, mental, and emotional health, by gaining
knowledge of the virus, how it is systemically spread, and why isolation and
distancing from others can protect you from its symptoms.

You know that
catching the virus is not necessarily a death sentence, and that underlying
health problems, especially related to the respiratory system or to the heart,
can make recovery difficult.

My experience is that my boomer friends are self-isolating. If you resisted isolation at the beginning of this pandemic, you probably have changed that mindset due to peer pressure and/or your sons, daughters, and friends monitoring your every move.

You know enough
to be cautious about social-distancing, washing hands frequently, and generally
keeping away from places that have over 10 people in attendance.

However, while
you are mindful of protecting your physical being, your mental and emotional
health should also be considered important.

Boomers have developed a variety of protocols for managing their mental and emotional health needs. I am a particular solitary woman by day and a social creature by night. I manage my situation as a solitary writer by practicing yoga and meditation, walking, swimming, and visiting my son and grandchildren with pre-planned distancing protocols.

Now that I can’t
get my social fix on the dance floor, I am creating new ways to restructure my
evenings to include social interaction via the Internet, phone calls to my
sons, my brother, best friends, grandchildren, and keeping company with
Netflix.

3 Steps to Manage
Your Mental and Emotional Health

The following are
3 other suggestions for managing your mental and emotional health in this
strange new world.

Call It Zoom

I’ve been in
Austin five years and have a wonderful group of senior/boomer friends that are
clever, smart, and inquisitive. We’ve discovered Zoom as an app to integrate a
new way of conversing and catching up on things.

Sometimes we have
a happy hour, other times we share ideas or information about internet
programming. Download the app on your computer or smartphone and you are good
to go.

Time to Get
Creative

Managing your mental and emotional health
underlines the idea that when one door closes, another door opens. Life doesn’t
stand still.

After you cleaned your closet, re-organized
your kitchen, pulled the weeds in the garden, cleaned out the shed or garage,
mowed the lawn, thrown out old files and dust collectors, it’s time to get
creative.

What have you always wanted to do in your life but haven’t done yet? Maybe: tighten up your meditation practice; use tutorials for yoga and work-outs; stretch more; increase the time you walk, and, therefore, increase the miles you log and decrease mental resistance.

Walk to your favorite music, dance, skip, and
use your arms to feel the spirit move through you.

Do you knit, crochet, sew? Get back to a
hobby. Read more, study a subject that enthralls you, take internet classes,
and learn to think differently by shifting your mind-sets.

Deepen your core values, but also practice
renewal activities, which involve developing a deeper understanding of beliefs,
attitudes, and most of all, your ever-changing identity about who you are today
in your 60s or 70s.

Expand Your Worldview

The challenge of isolation and the beauty of
silence is that you have the opportunity to expand your worldview – a world that includes philosophical and
psychological changes, as well as new ideas for personal growth and
development.

You can:

• Start spending time with the right
  people (online, of course) in intellectual discourse.
• Let go of self-limiting behaviors; take
  some risks!
• Make life simple again;
  confusion is an anathema.
• Find a new passion.
• Work through
  difficult situations with family and friends with tranquility and care.

Know
Thyself

The most formidable challenge to
everyone facing a pandemic, such as the coronavirus, is existential. The
definition of existential references your ability to face a crisis or a
disaster with competence and understanding of where your life is now and where
it might be going after it’s all over. The existential crisis tests your will,
your fortitude, and your resilience.

Cervantes wrote, “Make it thy business to know thyself, which
is the most difficult challenge in life.”

Knowing yourself reduces panic and
anxiety. To say that you don’t know enough of anything right now produces a self-prescribed
knowledge gap that is bound to inflame your neurosis quotient. Holding on to a
high anxiety level is not productive for learning to manage your mental and
emotional health.

So:

• Align your needs with
  what is happening in the present.
• Analyze your resources
  (what’s available to you in your environment).
• Worry won’t help to end the crisis any
  sooner, so stay in the present.
• Be with your own thoughts; sit with your own thoughts.
• Process your feelings instead of being
  reactive.
• Stay calm: think of the crisis as a human correction
  in your life.

It’s an axiom that every crisis shakes loose the old order: the sudden catastrophe changes the rules of human interaction and demands a review of old mindsets and antiquated opinions.

Managing your mental and emotional
health in difficult times will, of necessity, shift the sense of who you are
and what role society will play in your future. It’s an opportunity not to be
missed.

And smile when you remember that in good times and bad times, you’re still here.

How well do you manage your mental
and emotional health? What activities do you engage yourself in to keep busy?
What activities do you engage in because the calm down your anxiety? Please
share with our community.

Kenya Moore’s Snake Print Slit Skirt

Real Housewives of Atlanta Season 12 Episode 20 Fashion

A few weeks back Kenya Moore wore some killer snake print over the knee boots on Instagram and last night when she met with her estate planner we found out that they weren’t the only perfect python in her closet. And in these scene her slit snake print skirt wasn’t her only smart choice, as she provided a great example to women in terms of financial planning. Whether we are single or married, we need to know where our money is and where it might go, regardless of the size of our bank account. Even if that balance is about to get a tad bit smaller for those of us who choose to steal Kenya’s style.

The Realest Housewife,

Big Blonde Hair

Click Here to See her Sold Out Topshop Skirt

Originally posted at: Kenya Moore’s Snake Print Slit Skirt

Just when I thought the Sunday scaries and Monday blues were settling in for the week, the Nordstrom Better Together beauty sale pops up to put a smile on my tired beauty routine’s face (and give me an excuse to shop). As you are probably well aware, most of our favorite brick and mortar beauty destinations outside of the drugstore have been deemed non-essential and closed for the time being. However, that hasn’t stopped the surprise deals and recurring markdown events from flooding in, because some of us actually count our hair, skin and/or makeup routines as self-care.

With that being said, if you’re overdue for a replenishment, Nordstrom’s Better Together sale is something to keep your eye on. Because physical stores are closed, Nordstrom has teamed up with a gang of brands for daily deals across all categories and today, that distinct honor goes to beauty. From now until April 7 at 9AM EST, shoppers can save 15 percent on full-price makeup, skincare, hair, fragrance and grooming products, all of which includes free shipping and free returns.

Understandably so, there is no shortage of items to choose from, so I recommend going for those cult-favorites you’ve never had a chance to try whether it was because something sold out or you didn’t have the budget for it at the time. And if neither of those applies to you, well, I can’t think of a better time than now to simply treat yourself. Before you get lost in endless scrolling, here are 11 iconic items to keep in mind and don’t forget to check out the spring clothing sale too.

Estee Lauder.

Estee Lauder Double Wear Stay-in-Place Makeup

Though this long-wear foundation is full-coverage, it feels unbelievably lightweight and offers a radiant, non-drying matte finish.

(Original Price: $43)

Kiehl’s.

Kiehl’s Ultra Facial Cream

A top-selling option for dry and sensitive skin made with olive-derived squalane and glycoproteins derived from sea glaciers for that cooling sensation fans love so much.

(Original Price: $32)

Laura Mercier.

Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturizer

Infused with SPF 30 sun protection and vitamins C and E for nourishing barely-there coverage.

(Original Price: $47)

M.A.C.

M.A.C Studio Fix Fluid SPF 15

One of M.A.C’s many iconic coverage options for oil control and medium, buildable coverage.

(Original Price: $31)

Moroccanoil.

Moroccanoil Treatment

A truly versatile argan oil-infused hair oil that can be used as an all-over moisture treatment for thick hair or applied to the ends of fine hair for creating texture.

(Original Price: $34)

NARS.

NARS Radiant Creamy Concealer

A multipurpose coverage option that can be used under the eyes or directly on top of blemishes around the face.

(Original Price: $30)

SK-II.

SK-II Pitera First Experience Kit

If you’ve ever wanted to try the essence with countless celebrity co-signs, this starter kit includes just that along with a facial lotion and mask.

(Original Price: $99)

St. Tropez.

St. Tropez Self-Tan Classic Bronzing Mousse

Self-tanner newbies shouldn’t overlook this classic, easy-to-apply mousse for building color.

(Original Price: $18)

Tom Ford.

Tom Ford F*cking Fabulous Candle

Tom Ford’s sexy expletive perfume is also available as a home fragrance that will intoxicate anyone who steps inside your humble abode.

(Original Price: $132)

Anastasia Beverly Hills.

Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Wiz

A retractable brow pencil that effortlessly mimics the shape of single brow hairs and can also be used to fill in sparse arches.

(Originally $23)

Too Faced.

Too Faced Better Than Sex Mascara

Does this volumizing mascara really need an introduction? The waterproof version is also on sale too.

(Original Price: $25)

Our mission at STYLECASTER is to bring style to the people, and we only feature products we think you’ll love as much as we do. Please note that if you purchase something by clicking on a link within this story, we may receive a small commission of the sale and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.