Home & Garden
Page 5
The Endless Pursuit of Organization
I Couldn’t Be The Only One by Chelsey Lauer, Founder and CEO, JLB Simplify Home Organizing
In the summer of 2015, I found myself knee deep in too much stuff, and I had become unaware of the decline to the condition of my home. I was so caught up in keeping up with work, kids, and this whole “adult life”, and no one seemed to prepare me for the fact that I began to ignore the most ordinary and boring parts of life. I quit opening mail, left baskets of laundry everywhere, and my once organized basement was unrecognizable. We all have our long list of “life is just too hard sometimes” and our homes tend to take the biggest beating when that list gets too long. I even received a few shut off notices from utility companies, not because we couldn’t pay but because I lost the bill in one of my piles and simply forgot. If you had asked me in 2014 if this was a person I would ever become, I would have said it was impossible, as would my husband and anyone else who knew me. Yet, on the morning of August 7th, 2015, I set on my back porch holding back tears, hoping my kids would sleep
just a little bit longer so I could try to figure out how my home had fallen apart so fast. I couldn't stop thinking there had to be a better way and that I couldn’t be the only one. There had to be other people like me who were hardworking but who just had too much life thrown at them; people who now saw their home as a place of stress instead comfort. This then became my passion, to create a service for people who weren't just looking for organization or to become a minimalist, but people like me who just needed some help to get their home back under control after too much life seemed to happen and they didn’t know where to start to put the pieces back together. During the development of JLB Organizing method I wanted to understand why my brain, an organized, spreadsheet loving, and detailed orientated brain was now on the verge of a panic attack even at the thought of opening mail. What I learned through research, personal experience, and years of helping others get organized is there are always two things to blame: your brain and life. The JLB Organizing method may seem backwards to most mainstream organization rules. However, what I
found was most organizing self-help books were long and covered so many topics that I was normally to overwhelmed to want to read them. I also found the fun Pinterest post demotivating because you had to declutter and make decisions to achieve the finish product. If you are to overcome with anxiety, sadness, anger, or any of the emotions that come up when even thinking about decluttering an area of your home then those images are just a reminder of the hole you have found yourself in. What I have learned through my personal and work experience is that we all feel our homes should be better, and that we must be failing by societies standards. I can assure you, you are not failing! My goal is to teach people how to deal with the feelings of being overwhelmed with the condition of their home. I don’t support the technique of making you feel guilty for struggling to let things go, we all have our reasons behind why we keep what we keep. I recommend learning to make decisions by baby steps and realizing you don’t have to do it all at once. My hope with this column is that it will help people realize that the pursuit
or organization can seem endless because your life is endlessly changing, but that you are not alone in your struggle and there are techniques and tips you can learn to better manage your home. We are all good at something and you can learn to be better at organizing and creating systems that work for your life and your family. It doesn’t have to happen overnight and, in most cases, like all aspects of your life, your organizing systems will be a constantly evolving process. I look forward to sharing what I have learned in over a decade of organizing others as well as myself with you! Until next time, Chelsey Lauer
Chelsey Lauer created JLB Simplify Home Organizing in 2015 after realizing that sometimes life throws to much at you and no matter how hard you try, your home continues to be a cause of stress and endless clutter. Her goal is to help people feel back in control of their home and running a business and raising 3 boys, she knows all too well how quickly a clean organized house can become a cluttered mess.
Spring Gardening
by Cathy Bylinowski, Horticulture Educator, University of Missouri Extension Service
Watching the snow fall as I write this, it is hard to imagine weather conducive to planting a garden being around the corner. Sooner than later it will be time to get those sought-after spring crops in the ground and on their way to a quick harvest and your favorite salad, stir-fry, or casserole. What is your favorite spring vegetable crops? Sugar snap peas? Onions? Carrots? Arugula? All these crops grow best in the cool weather of spring. As soon as the soil in your garden space is moist, not wet, and can be cultivated into a seed bed with a crumbly texture in late February and March, go ahead and direct seed these spring crops. Lettuce, radishes, mustard greens, and kale are just some of the crops that can be on your list to plant by seed. These crops will tolerate a light freeze and frost and continue growing. Onion sets and onion plants Both are available in your local garden supply stores. Onion sets are small bulbs that will give you green onions to use in salads and other dishes in 40-50 days. Onion plants
mature a little faster and should provide usable green onions in 30-40 days. If you want to get larger onions to harvest later in the spring or early summer be sure to provide adequate water on a weekly basis. Harvest and cure large onions when the green tops fall over. Potatoes Potatoes are a rewarding crop. While many people think St. Patrick’s Day is the best planting date for potatoes, Dr. David Trinklein, University of Missouri Horticulture Specialist, says that it is usually a couple of weeks too early. If the soil temperature is not above 45 degrees F, seed potato pieces can be killed by freezing temperatures or rot in the cold, wet soil. Late March through early May, when the soil temperatures go up to around 78 degrees is a good time to plant potatoes. Sugar snap peas Eat the whole pod of these peas, fresh from the garden. I often eat them all before I get inside! If you do manage to get a bowlful into the kitchen, they are great steamed or stir-fried. They
Spring crops such as sugar snap peas are a great addition to your favorite salad, stirstir-fry, or casserole. Photo credit: iStock
are sweet and crunchy. Kids love them. They are a great addition to the spring garden. Plant sugar snap pea seeds in a crumbly moist seedbed. Peas and other legumes benefit from a coating of inoculant, special bacteria that allows the pea roots to get more nitrogen from the soil. Inoculant is available in small bags from garden supply stores. It should improve your pea crop yield. Most varieties of sugar snap peas are vining crops and will need a trellis to grow on. Some varieties of sugar snap peas are shorter and self-trellising. Be sure to keep your seed beds
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moist until your spring vegetable crops sprout. After they begin growing and have a set of true leaves, you can switch to watering around the roots once a week. Watering thoroughly and deeply is beneficial to most crops. Ideally vegetable crops need one inch of water per week. If the rain does not provide it, you will have to water. Check out the University of Missouri Extension websitewww.extension2.missouri.edu for information on how to plant and manage a wide range of vegetable crops. You can also access the Master Gardener Core Manual chapters on vegetable gardening at no chargehttps://extension2.missouri.edu/mg5 Call the University of Missouri Extension office in Blue Springs, 816252-5051, or contact the Master Gardener Hotline, 816-833-TREE (8733), 24-hour voice mail or email mggkc.hotline@gmail.com for more gardening information. Happy Spring Gardening!
